
a- 






% 




ur>v 



&*^*& i^» 




Glass. 
Book 



1 VJ 



•me***r*0immmmmmm 



SPEECH 



OF 



THE HOW. WILLIAM SMITH, 

M 

DELIVEREB 

OH l&OtfDAY, AUGUST 1, 1831, 

AT A MEETING OF THE 

CITIZENS OF SPANTANBURG DISTRICT, 

AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF 



"PRINTED AT THE JOURNAL OFFICII, 
1831, 



> I 



■38^ 



t>6£ 



*> 



w X* \5 O 



1^ 



ON the first Monday in August, upwards of 1,500 citizens of 
Spartanburg District, assembled at this village for the purpose 
of expressing, by Resolutions, their decided opposition to the 
doctrine of "Nullification," now so vehemently urged upon the 
public mind by a certain portion of our politicans. 

The assemblage was so great that they had to retire to a plea- 
sant grove, adjacent to the village, where they were addressed 
in succession by H. H. Thompson, Esq. of Spartanburg Dis- 
trict, by Judge Smith of York District, and by Honorable W* 
T* Nuckolls, of Union District, 







SPEECH OF MR. SMITH. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS,— I have not come here by the invita- 
tion of your Committee of Arrangement, nor by the invitation 
of any other citizen of your District. I heard ot your intended 
meeting and its object, and have volunteered my attendance ; and 
by your indulgence have been called upon to address you. I an, 
for'that purpose, and have no hesitation to avow it. I had bee 
associated with you in various political relations. I had for; 
merly presided in your Courts. I had been your Senator n th 
Congress of the United States. I am now, and have been fo. 
more than forty years ago, associated with you in the same Con 
gressional Election District. These I calculated, as I hay, 
found it, would shield me from the imputation of an intrude! 
But I ea dilated on another reason, a little stronger still, to sh.eh 
me from that imputation. I believed that there existed betwee, 
™ . kindred sympathy for the safety of our country, and a du 
position to co-operate in the best means to preserve our happ; 
Union and I came, not under a belief that I could pour out 
Union, ami j. •-<"■"=, , m n ds captive, o 

inrrent of eloquence, b) wnicn 10 ieau ;»«■ r > 

prostrate you? reasoning faculties, and prose yte you to ne 

ndunheadof doctrines; but I came, my fellow-citizens, t 
m"„ "le my humble voice with yours, in deprecating the .leva. 
S doctrine of "Nullification," now stalking through yo» 
lounfry, d squlting the peaceful repose of your honest citizens 
and f not an-ested by the good sense of our f ^° n < " 
„;.,- mrst inevitably produce a dissolution of the Union, or 
"ate of civil war To reflecting minds these alternatives pr. 

SC ffta" NuUificalton first made its appearance among us, it w 
no i a spirit of conciliation and respect for the honest opinio, 
of others but it bursted .forth with nny.e ding intolerance ar 
t advocates have assume*, with unwearied coldness, the do 
trines which they taught Cue people to contemn ; have usurp, 
v HI see in- earnestness the very characters winch they bran, 
Id wth reproach ; and with an unusual self-eomplaseney to 
eo. win ai ' virtuous appellation that marks t! 

taken to themselves every " dres? _inthisborrd^ 

natriot and the statesman. inuiisii.»«"» a 
11 mole they have slept in our path, and cry out, "follow , 
Follow us! amiall will be well ;" at the same time unblushing 



V 



6 



denouncing erafy man^vho refuses to embrace the new political 
faith, as a submission mdf^—a coward — a federalist — a tory — 
an advocate for non-resistance and perfect obedience, or some 
such reproachful epithet calculated to force him into their ranks 
to escape their scourge, or to disgrace him, and render any ar- 
guments he might offer against "nullification" unavailing, and 
a thousand other misrepresentations — in the division of which 
they have heaped on myself, with an unsparing hand, characters 
and epithets which never belonged to me, to which I have al- 
ways acted in direct opposition, and which they had but just 
shaken from their own shoulders. 

Had nullification slumbered, where its advocates left it after 
the proposition for Convention had failed, I should cheerfully 
have permitted those misrepresentations and calumnies to have 
slept with it. But unfortunately for the repose of this commu- 
nity, it has recently been revived with renovated vigor. Their 
public speakers are abroad — convention is no longer spoken of, 
but nullification is loudly proclaimed. As I cannot subscribe to 
doctrines which I conceive to be fraught with consequences so 
disastrous to this Union, I only desire, by bringing to view those 
unwarrantable attacks, to call the attention of a liberal communi- 
ty to what may happen in future. And should I communicate 
any thing upon this important question, they may give to it such 
consideration as it may. claim, and not permit it to be lost in 
calumny and reproach. 

I lay no claim to infallibility — I ask no exemption from just 
remarks ; on the contrary, I acknowledge that men in public 
stations are justly subject to public animadversions, whensoever 
they permit themselves to indulge in maintaining and inculcating, 
at different periods, different political creeds upon the same po- 
litical subject. It holds in check the wily and ambitious politi- 
cian, and corrects the errors of the honest statesman. But when 
a public man's conduct is called in question it ought to be sup- 
ported by facts, not by assertions of men who have no regard 
for fair dealing. 

There are several statesmen among us who have been amonor 
your most decided Tariff and Internal Improvement men. They 
were the first to concede the power to the General Government 
3ver the Tariff and Internal Improvement, and certainly the first 
;o propose nullification as a means of regaining it by the States. 
[ intend to bring to public view their distinct opinions as given 
jy themselves on both sides. I shall do it respectfully, because 
hev are held up both at public festivals and in legislative 
speeches, as illustrious examples for our imitation in. the nullifi- 
cation doctrine. 

The statesmen, to whom I allude, arc the Vice President, Cal- 
loun. the Hon. George MTKiffie, Governor Hamilton, General 



"Robert Y. Haync, and Governor Miller. They are uniformly 
toasted together on all public occasions, as the great men of the 
nation. Mr. IT. L. Pinkney in his legislative speech on nullifi- 
tion, during last winter, triumphantly exclaims: "If I err, I have 
the consolation, at all events, to know, that I am with many of 
our purest patriots and most distinguished statesmen. With 
Mr. Calhoun — with Mr. M'Duffie — with Mr. Hamilton, and with 
Mr. Miller." — [See his Speech, public debates, page 122.] 

I mean to oiler nothing but fair extracts from their own printed 
speeches, and their own printed books, written by themselves, and 
their own votes as recorded in the Journals of Congress, or from 
the most authentic sources. I will, in all cases, give the authority 
where the extracts are to be found, by which any person may ad- 
vert to the original, and examine the whole doctrine for himself. 
This will be doing them complete justice, and of which I am sure 
they will not complain. And as they are so often referred to 
•as political guides to lead us through this "mazy dance," if it 
can be clearly demonstrated that they have been mistaken them- 
selves, and have distrusted their own first and long entertained 
-opinions, and have totally abandoned them, and assumed new 
opinions directly opposite, whatever distinctions they may other- 
wise have attained, they certainly have no claims as distinguish- 
ed (juides. 

Before I go into a detailed history of the Tariff and Internal 
Improvement principles of those gentlem :n, permit me, without 
entering upon a formal self-defence, to give my own creed upon 
the same subject. I cannot do it letter t-han by repeating what 
I have constantly repeated, and what I have uniformly declared: 
That I have been an unceasing advocate for abolishing all pro- 
tecting duties, on whatsoever laid* and in whatsoever state they 
may operate. That I have been unceasingly opposed to the In- 
ternal Improvement system in all its forms. I have been so op- 
posed, because I most conscieniiously believed them both to be 
unconstitutional, and in their operation unequal, therefore un- 
just, and peculiarly oppressive to th„ Southern States, without 
affording those States any of the benefits intended to flow from 
< item of policy. And, furthermore, because I saw in that 
policy the degradation of my country. I commenced my opposi- 
tion to Internal Improeement with my first political breath. I 
opposed the famous "Bonus Bill," in my maiden spekch, within 
three weeks after I entered the Senate. I commenced my op- 
position to the Tariff the next session thereafter, on a pr opposi- 
tion to lay an additional duty on Iron. I have preserved with 
ardour in that opposition tip to the present moment. 

I have served ten years in the Legislature of the State, and I 
have served twelve years in the Senate of the United States, 
and without fear of contradiction I assert, they cannot prod^po 



8 

one instanee in which I have given different votes on the same 
subject at different times — yet the constant slang of the nullify- 
ing gentlemen, is, that I have abandoned my former principles 
and become a Tariff man. 

Their change of opinion cannot be better illustrated than by 
comparing the opinions they have respectfully held an:l acted 
upon at one period, with the opinions they have held and acted 
upon at another period, upon the same subject, the subject of the 
Tariff and Internal Improvement. When I shall have done this, 
I shall have done all I have promised to do. It will remain for 
others to account to the people for their mutations. 

MR. CALHOUN'S TARIEF OPINIONS IN 1810. 
Mr. Calhoun, after the bill which laid the foundation of the 
Tariff of 181G, had been fully discussed by other gentlemen, 
made a speech in support of it, from which the following is an 
extract: 

"The debate heretofore on this subject has been on the degree 
"of protection which ought to be afforded to our cotton and wool- 
len manufacturers. He regretted much his want of prepara- 
tion. But whatever his arguments might want on that account 
"in weight, he hoped might be made up in the disinterestedness 
"of his situation. He was no manufacturer; he was not from 
"that portion of our country supposed to be peculiarly interest- 
ed. Coming, as he did, from the South ; having, in common 
"with his immediate constituents, no interest but in the culti- 
vation of the soil, in selling its products high, and buying cheap 
"the wants and conveniencies of life, no motives could be attri- 
"buted to him, but such as were disinterested." — [Sec his Speech, 
Nat. Int. 22d April, 1816. 

MR. CALHOUN ON THE TARIFF IN 1828. 
Mr. Calhoun continued to be the unwavering advocate of a 
protecting Tariff until 1828, four years after the Tariff of 1834, 
which fixed the system upon us. He then spoke freely of nul- 
lification, and the repeal of the 25th section of the act of 17$?, 
and of deciding the constitutionality of the Tariff laws by the 
verdict of a jury, on the revenue bonds ; and in the autumn of 
that year, he wrote his famous "Exposition," which gave the 
first impulse to nullification. The following are extracts from it: 
"The government has no mines. Some one must bear the 
"burdens of its support. This unequal lot is ours. We are the 
"serfs of the system, out of whose labour is raised not only the 
"money that is paid into the Treasury, but the funds out of 
"which are drawn the rich reward of the manufacturer and his 
"associates in interest. The encouragement is our discourage- 
men." — [Exposition, page 11. 

MR. CALHOUN IN 1816. 
"Manufactures fostered, the former will find a ready market 



9 

-'For his surplus produce, and, what is aimost of equal conse- 
quence, 'a certain and cheap supply of ail his wants. Thus 
"situated, the storm may beat without, but within all may be 
"quiet and safe. To give perfection to this state of things, it 
"will be necessary to add, as soon as possible, a system of In- 
eternal Improvement. But it lias been objected, that the conn- 
"try is not prepared for manufacturing, and that the result of 
"our premature exertion would be to bring distress on it, with- 
"out effecting the intended object. But he coucd not for a mo- 
"ment yield to the assertion — on the contrary, he firmly believed 
"that the country is prepared, even to maturity, for the intro- 
"duction of manufactures. It will introduce a new era in our 
"affairs, in many respects highly advantageous, and ought to be 
"countenanced by the government." — [His Speech, IS at. Intel. 
2'2d April, 1816. 

MR. CALHOUN IN 1828. 
"Their object in the Tariff is to keep down foreign competition, 
"in order to obtain a monopoly of the domestic market. The 
"effect on us is to compel us to purchase, at a high price, both 
"what we purchase from them and from others, without receiv- 
ing a corresponding increase of price from what we sell." — 
[His Exposition, pa ge li. 

"We already see indications of the commencement of a com- 
"mercial warfare, the termination of which cannot be conjectur- 
"ed, though our fate may easily be. The last remains of our 
"great and once flourishing agriculture, must be annihilated in 
"the conflict." — [Exposition, page 12. 

MR. CALHOUN IN 1816. 

"But it will no doubt be said, if manufactures are so far es- 
tablished, and if the situation of the country is so favorable to 
"their growth, where is the necessity of affording them protec- 
tion. It is 'o put them beyond the reach of contingency." — [See 
Nat. Int. 2M April, 1816. 

MR. CALHOUN IN 1828. 

"It has already been proved that our contribution through the 
"Custom House to the Treasury of the Union amounts annually 
"to $16,658,000, which leads to the enquiry, what becomes of 
"the amount of the products of our labor, placed by the opera- 
"tion of the system at the disposal of Congress. One point is 
"certain, a very small share returns to us, out of whose labor it 
"is extracted." — [Exposition, page 14. 

MR. CALHOUN IN 1816. 

"Besides, circumstances, if we act with wisdom, are favorable 
"to attract to our country much skill and industry. The coun- 
"try in Europe, having the most skilful workmen, is broken up. 
"It is to us, if wisely used, more valuable than the repeal of the 
"edict of Nantz was to England. She had the prudence to profit 



10 

"by it: let us not discover less political sagacity. Afford to in- 
"genuity immediate and ample protection, and they will -not - 
"fail to give a preference to this free and happy country." — [See 
Nat. Int. Z'M April, 1810. 

MR. CALII017N IN 1828. 

"Our very complant is that we are not permitted to consume 
":he fruits of our labour ; but through an. artful and complex sys- 
tem, in violation of every principle of justice they are transfer- 
red from us to others.'"— Exposition, page 15. 
MR. CALHOUN IN 1810. 

"Manufacture? produced an interest strictly American, as 
"much so as agriculture^ in which it had the decided advantage 
"of commerce and navigation. The country, from this will de- 
rive much advantage."— [See Nat. Int. ZM April, 1816. 
MR. CALHOUN IN 1823. 

"But the existence of the right of judging of their powers, 
"clearly established from the sovereignty of the States, as clear- 
"7y implies a veto, or control on the action of the General Gov- 
"ernment on contested points of authority ; and this very con- 
trol is the remedy which the constitution has provided to pre- 
"vent the encroachment on the reserved right of the Stales."— 

\ Exposition, page 30. 

A MR. CALHOUN IN 1816. 
"Again, it is calculated to bind together more closely our wide- 
ly spread republic. It will greatly increase our mutual de- 
pendence and intercourse ; and will, as a necessary conse- 
"ouence, excite an increased attention to Internal Jmprove- 
"ment, a subject every way so intimately connected with the ul- 
timate attainment of our national strength and the perfection 
"of our political institutions. He regarded the fact that it would 
"make the parts adhere more closely, that it would form a new 
"and most powerful cement, far out weighing political cbjec- 
"tions that might be urged against the system."— [See Nat. Int. 

22i April, 1816. 

MR. CALHOUN IN 1828. 
"The co itinuance of this unhuppp state must end in the loss 
"of all affection, leaving the government to be sustained by force 
"instead of patriotism. In fact, to him who will duly reflect, it 
"must be apparent, that where there ore important separate in- 
terest to preserve, there is no alternative but a veto or military 
"force."— [Sec Exposition, page 56. 

* I have given Mr. Calhoun's opinions of 1810 and ot lfcWS— a 
paragraph from the one, and a paragraph from the other, alter- 
natly { and assuredly they are as opposite as it is possible 
forooiuionstobe— and here I will leave him for the present, 
and examine his votes upon the Tariff whilst he was a member 
of our Confess, in 1816. It has been said by Mr. Calhoun s 



11 

friends, that the Tariff of 1816 was not a Tatiff of protection 

bat to reduce the duties which were laid to support the war.— 
His votes will prove that his object was to increase the dudes, 
and that for the express purpose of raising up the "American' 
System" in favor of the manufacturers. 

The duty on salt was intirely a war duty. Previous to the 
war salt paid no duty. la 181(5, more than a year after the war 
terminated, Mr. Calhoun voted: 

"To continue in force the act laying a duty on imported salt ; 
"granting a bounty on picket fish exported", and allowances to' 
"certain vessels employed in the fisheries." — [See Jour. II. R. 
1st Session, \4tk Congress, page 188. 

An amendment was proposed,' by the committee of the whole, 
to reduce the duty on iron in bars and bolts from seventy-live 
cents per hundred weight to forty-five cents. 

"Mr. Calhoun voted against reducing the duty, and left it 
"seventy-five cents, instead of forty-five cents," which has since 
increase.! to one hundred and seventy-five cents per hundred.— 
[Jour. II. R. 1st Session, ]4th Congress, page 582. 

It was proposed to amend the bill by reducing the duty on 
brown sugar from four cents per pound to two cents per pound. 
"Mr. Calhoun voted for the four cents per pound instead of 
"two cents per pound."— [Jour. II. R. 1st Sess. 14th Congress 
page 58 1. ° 

It was then proposed by Mr. Huger, (S. C.) to reduce the duty 
on woollen manufactures from. twenty-five cents to twenty cents 
"advalorcju.'" 

"Mr. Calhoun voted for twenty-five cents duty in preference 
"to twenty cents."— Journ. IL it. Ut.Sess. Uth Con. pagetiM. 
Mr. Calhoun voted to increase the duties on salt,' iron and 
brown sugar, and on coarse woollen and coarse cotton (roods, 
and voted for the final passage of the bill, with all its burdens 
MR. CALHOUN ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 
The effect of the Internal Improvement in keeping U r) the 
Tariff, is but little understood. The Tariff will 'give way 'at 
once, if you could put an end to Internal Improvement. It "is a 
fact not to be doubted, that no m mey whatever, but the neces- 
sary expenditures of the government, except what is expended 
for making roads and canals, is derived from the Tariff. Mr. 
Calhoun has silently passed over this subject in his "Expositia 
pr. M'Duffie, his friend, lias said, that Internal Improvement 
was first proposed as a system,, by Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun 
laid its foundation in his speech on the Tariff of 1816. He there 
connected their fortunes together, and made Internal Improve- 
ment to depend on the Tariff. And at the next, succeeding Ses- 
sion of Congress he made Hie folllowing motion: 

"That a committee be appointed to enquire into the expedi- 



12 



«encv of setting apart the Bonus, and the nett annual profits ot 
"the National Bank, as a permanent fund for Internal Improve- 
«ment."-J<m™. H. K. 2d Sess. 14th Congress, page 73. _ 

Shortly after, he reported a hill to that effect When this bill 
came up for consideration, considerable debate ensued. The 
following are extracts from Mr. Calhoun's speech on that bil . 

«Uw!s mainly urged that the Congress can only apply the 
"public money in execution of the enumerated powers. He was 
"no advocate for refined arguments on the Constitution, I he 
'instrument was not intended as a thesis for the logician to 
"exercise his ingenuity on. It ought to be con.tn.ed ^n* l plain 
"o-ood sense ; and what can be more express than the Constitu- 
tion on thisVery point! The first power delegated to Congrc^ 
"i, comprised in these words: "to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
"imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and proptde for he 
"common defence and general welfare of the United States. - 
Mils Speech, N. L 2U Feb. 1817. .*.-,, e 

I "Uninfluenced by any other considerations than love of conn- 
"try said he, let us add this to the many useful measures rf- 
"readv adopted. The money cannot be appropriated to a more 
"exalted use."— [His Speech, N. L 22d Feb. Ibl7. 

At the session that Mr. Calhoun brought in this bill, to appro- 
priate the Bonus of the Bank of the United States, amounting to 

II 500,000, and the proceeds of that Bank, arising from $7,000,- 
000 of capital, owned by government, to Internal Improvement 
at that same session he voted against the repeal of the internal 
duties, and among the reasons which he assigned, ma- public 
speech, was, that "the money arising from that tax could not be 
soared from the making of roads and canals. And he actually 
Lent an od on tax upon stills, winch fell for the most part on 
poo men, who occasionally made a little money from their own 
snare -rain, to enable him to make roads and canals lor other 
States.— [See his Speech in Congress against repealing Inter- 
<nnl Duties Nat. Int. l\th April 181(5. 

ille £ afthe same session, voted against reducing the duty 
"on brown sugar from three cents to one cent and a half per 
"nnnnd for the same reason, the money could not be spared 
4om roads and canab."-[S« Jour. II. R. 2d Sess. Uth Con. 

T X. Sison'ntS'tived Mr. Calhoun', famous Bonus Bill bj 
cause it was a direct viola ion of the Constitution, winch so 
much disappointed Mr. Calhoun in his favorite scheme , of ex- 
pending the public money, that he made a road of his own ac 
cord which cost the government $10,000, and of which the 
Zernment knew nothing until he applied to Congress to ap- 
propriate the money for his benefit. Indeed these were but the 
beginnings of Mr. Calhoun's road and canal career. At the lat- 



13 

ier end of ins Secretaryship, he ordered more surreys than th< 
whole revenue of the United States would accomplish in fort\ 
years. — [Sec Jour. H. R. 2d Sess. I4.lh Con. 537 — See State pa- 
pers, 2d Sess. \Sth Con. Doc. No. 32 — also, 2d Sess. IQlh Con. 
Doc. No. 19. 

I will give Mr. M'Duffic's opinions also, alternatively, and in 
rotation, according to their respective dates. 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1821. 

Mr. M'Duffie in 1821, after he had been elected a member of 
Congress, wrote a number of essays in support jf the powers of 
the General Government, and against the powers of the State 
Governments. In which he seems to have given up all power 
to the General Government, and considered the States as merely 
tributary without possessing any sort of power themselves. In 
which he has maintained some most extraordinary Doctrines. 
From the principles which Mr. M'Duffie has there broadly laid 
down, he has not only surrendered to the Federal Government 
full powers over the Tariff and Internal Improvement systems, 
but every other system over which Congress might choose to 
exercise control, regardless of the reserved Rights, or any oihe, 
Rights. He wrote those essays in answer to certain numbers 
which had been previously published in a Georgia paper under 
the signature of " Trio." 

The " Trio" held that the General Government was establish- 
ed by the States, and not by the people. A doctrine now usur- 
ped by the advocates of Nullification. Mr. M'Duffie boldly con- 
tends against that theory, and goes to prove that it was estab- 
lished by the people, themselves, and that the States have no 
control over it. He sets out by saying: 

" The General Government is truly the government of the 
" whole people, as a State Government is of part of the people. 
" Its constitution in the language of its preambles was ordained 
"and established by "the people of the United States." His 
" One of the People, page 1. 

"The State Governments, too, are the absolute creatures of 
" the people, and have no political powers not delegated to them 
" by tl^ir respective constitutions, and consistent with the con- 
" stitution of the United States. The states, as political bodies, 
" have no original, inherent rights. That they have such rights 
" is a false, dangerous, and anti republican assumption, which 
" lurks at the bottom of all the reasonings in favcr of State 
"rights." — One of the People, page 2. 

" Since we have become a united people, the politicians of 
"Virginia have been most loudly clamorous about State Rights; 
" and have given the tone to particular factions in other states, 
"on the subject. Ambitious men of inferior talents, finding 
" they have no hopes to be distinguished in the councils of the 



14 

" National Government, naturally [wishio increase the power 
"and consequence of the State Governments, the theatres in 
;i which they expect to acquire distinction. Xhe ambition and 
-•pride of the most alarmrng'andj dangerous tendency, which if 
" not discountenanced by moderate and reflecting men, may at 
"'some future day dissolve our happy union, and sweep away, 
"in a tide of evil blood, all that constitutes the happiness of in- 
dividuals or the. glory of a nation." — One of ike People, 5. 

Virginia had in her ^councils men who would have vied in 
splendor of eloquence with the first orators of Ancient Greece 
or Rome. She had a Washington, second in war to no man 
that ever lived. She had a Jefferson whose memory . ill go 
down to posterity incireled with unrivaled fame, as a Statesman 
a Republican, and a Patriot. She had a Madison, she had a 
Monroe, who successively presided over this great Republic. 
And she has always had a constellation of worthies, who for 
talents, for disinterested patriotism, and love of civil liberty, 
have not been surpassed in anv age or any nation. 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1831. 
" I am not unaware that many of our fellow citizens shall look 
" to Congress for relief, with a faint hope, long cherished and 
" long deferred: I am also aware that some of our State phy £• 
"eians, notwithstanding the repeated disappointment of these 
"delusive hopes, very confidently tell you, that all things will 
"come right of themselves. As citizens of South Carolina, 
"deeply impressed with the magnitude of her wrongs, I am> 
" sure you feel that it is not unbecoming the condition of colonial 
"vassalage to which our state is reduced, that we should mingle 
"even with the festivities of the hospitable board, the solemn 
"consideration of the nature and extent of our grievances, and- 
" tn^ means by which our violated rights can be most successful-. 
" ly reclaimed and secured." — See his Charleston dinner Spceeh.' 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1821. 
" And do we not see almost passing before us, in this tranquil 
" period of peace, an example of State insubordination. The* 
"laws of the Union, clothed with the most solemn sanctions of. 
"the constitution, have been under the extreme pressure of. 
"local embarrassment, absolutely resisted by the State authori-i 
"ties — After. the supreme tribunal of the country -, pronounced. 
" an act of Congress constitutional, arid consequently the supreme- 
" law of the land, a State Government has openly opposed its.. 
" execution. It will be readily understood that I allude to the 
" embarassing conflict of authority between the General Gov-* 
"ernment and the State of Ohio, in relation to the National 
"Bank. And I hesitate not to pronounce it one of the most por- 
tentous events that has occurred since the adoption of the< 
' Federal Constitution. For if after the National Judiciary 



15 

M have solemnly affirmed the constitutionality of a law. it is» 
" still to be resisted by the State rulers, the constitution is litter 
" ally at an end; a revolution of the Government is already ac- 
" complished, and anarchy waves his horrid sceptre over the 
"'broken alters of this happy Union!" — l)neofthcPconlc,pagc 15 
MR. MDTJFFJfi IN 1831. 

"We vainly boast of the blessings of self Government, when 
■"those who are directly interested in our destination, are dis- 
** posing of our rights at their pleasure, and actually immolating 
"them at the shrines of avarice and ambition. In this state of 
" things a very grave and awful responsibility devolves upon the 
" sovereignty of South Carolina: that of interposing its sacred 
" shield to protect our citizens from plunder and oppression, and 
"ultimate ruin. I believe this to be one of these great emcr- 
" gencies in human affairs, which impose an imperative obliga- 
" tion upon the sovereign power of the Stale, to take care that 
" the republic receive no detriment." — His Spree!: in Charleston , 
Mil. M'DUFFIE IN 1821. 

"You assert that when any conflict shall occur between the 
"General and State Governments, as to the extent of their res- 
"«jJeetive powers, "each party have a right to judge for itself. 
" I confess I am at a loss to know how such a proposition ought 
" to be treated. No climax of political heresies can be imagined, 
" in which this might not fairly claim the most prominent place. 
" It resolves the government, at once, into the elements of phy- 
" sical force ; and introduces us directly into a scene of anarchy 
"and blood. There is not a single power delegated to the 
"General Government, which it would not be in the power of 
"every State Government to destroy, under the authority of 
" this licentious principle." — [One of the People, page 10, 
MR. M'DUFFIF/IN 1831. 

" We hear our oppressors, and not unfreqhently our own citi- 
" zens, very gravely talking about the treason and rebellion of 
"resisting the unconstitutional acts of Congress, by interposing 
" the sovereign power of the State, precisely as the Fmglish op- 
pressors of our ancestors and the tories of that day talked 
" about the treason and rebellion of resisting our sovereign Lord 
" the King. But thanks to our illustrious and heroic ancestors, 
" the States are no longer Co]onies. Where, then, is the diffi- 
culty,, and where the danger of interposing the sovereign power 
" of the State, in a case of acknowledged injustice and oppres- 
sion, perpetrated in opposition to the; most solemn guarantees 
" of the covenant of the Union? Allow me to tell you that there 
"is no teal difficulty or danger in the matter, that a freeman 
" should regard for a moment." — [His Speechin Charleston, 
MR. M'MUFFJE FN I8'21. 

■' Up-jn the discretion of Congress in "laying and collecting 



J 6 

"taxes," and "in raising and supporting armies," there a re k« 
" restrictions but those imposed by nature. Congress may push 
"these powers to the utmost verge indicated by the physical 
"capacity of the country. They may, upon the slightest occa- 
sion, and for the most unwise, improvident, and wicked ends, 
" draw from the people (of the States too !) the uttermost far- 
" thing that can be spared from their suffering families, to fill the 
" natural coffers, and call out the last man that can be spared 
"from raising the necessaries of life, to fill the national armies 
" and fight the battles of ambitious rulers. And all this, however 
"inexpedient, unjust, and tyrannical, they can do, without tran- 
" scending the limits of their constitutional authority. The 
" General Government is thus invested, {safely and constitu- 
" iionally invested,) with an unlimited command over the purse 
"and the sword of the nation." — [One of the People, page 8. 

Can any thing transcent this surrender of power made to the 
General Government ? I here leave Mr. M'Duffie's "One of the 
People," and will draw on his speech in Congress, made upon 
the powers of the General Government over Internal Improve- 
ment. 

MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1624, 

"I confidently assert, that this Government is as popular in 
" its organization and as safe a depository of power as a State 
" Government." — [His Speech in Congress on Internal Im- 
provement. 

" I am clearly of opinion, that, under the general power to 
"raise and appropriate money to "promote the common de- 
" fence and general welfare," Congress has the power to ap- 
" priate money for making roads and canals, with the consent 
" of the States in which these works may be executed, without 
" reference to any of the specific grants of power." — [His Speech 
on Internal Improvement, page 15. 

"My position is, that Congress has power to raise and appro- 
" priate money to carry into effect the other powers expressly 
" granted, and also to promote " the general welfare" so far as 
" it can be promoted by money merely." — [His Speech on In- 
ternal Improvement, page 1G. 

MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1831. 

"Those who dare not openly vindicate tyranny and justify 
"oppression, exclaim in the most patriotic agonies, the "Union, 
" the Union, the Union is in danger. The Union, such as the 
" majority have made it, is a foul monster, which those who 
"worship, after seeing its deformity, are worthy of their 
" chains." — [See his Charleston Dinner Speech. 

" Whatever they may pretend, and whatever they may believe, 
" those are not the true friends of a constitutional Union, who 
" recommend passive obedience to every act of tyranny and op- 



1* 

* v preg'9iou, perpetrated in the name of that t7nioti. But dig- 
" union is not the worst of the spectral dangers that have been 
•• conjured up by our adversaries. Frightful pictures of war and 
** blood are presented to alarm the timid, and it is with deep 
V mortification that I acknowledge that many have been imposed 
* upon by so shallow an artifice. "-[His Charleston dinner speech 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1824. 

"Though I have deemed it important to show that this Gor- 
" eminent has the power to execute Internal Improvements, 
"with the consent of the States in which they may be made, I 
M confess I deem it of much more importance to establish its ab- 
" solute and sovereign power to make such roads and canals as 
"are requisite and proper for giving a salutary efficiency to the 
"great powers expressly conferred upon it, "in order to form 
"a more perfect union," and perpetuate the blessings of liber- 
" ty." — [See his Speech on Internal Improvement, page 20. 

"Indeed, I am satisfied that the proposition, that power is e&- 
" sential to liberty, will be found to be philosophically true, upon 
" the fullest examination."- — [See his Speech on Internal Im- 
provement, page 26. 

" The course of argument, which denies to this Government 
" the power to make Internal Improvements, is too refined and 
" metaphysical for the comprehension of the people, and as far 
"as my observation has extended, it is almost entirely confined 
"to the politicians. Tell a plain man that the Government. has 
" not this power, and you will strike him with astonishment."-— 
[See his Speech on Internal Improvement, pages 27-28. 

"In whatever light we view these improvements, whether in 
"reference to the diffusion of intelligence, the increase of the 
"defensive power of the country, or the perpetuation of the 
"Union, they are as essential to our existence and prosperity as 
" a nation, as the veins which give circulation to the principle of 
" animal life are to the health and vigor of the animal system. "-^ 
[See his Speech e\i Internal Improvement, page 31. 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1831. 

"If every State actually paid an equal contribution to the 
" Federal Treasury, by a system of direct taxation, my life upon 
" it, there would be no farther waste upon wild and improvident 
"schemes of Internal improvement. Those who are now so 
"liberal in expending the money of other people, would then be 
"as remarkable for economy in expending their own; and I 
" think it exiremely doubtful whether an appropriation could be 
" forced through Congress for constructing a national road ten 
"miles long."— [See his Charleston Dinner Speech. 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1828. 

It had been intimated to Mr. M'Duine that he was suppose^ 
:3 



18 

U have abandoned hia Internal Improvement principled. To» 
remove this unjust suspicion, on the 15th of March, 1828, -Mr. 
M'Dufiie wrote a letter to his friend, in which he used the fol- 
lowing expressions: 

••' The Cumberland Road, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, titer 
•■'Canal connecting Pittsburg with the Lakes, the line of inland 
"navigation from New Orleans around the coast, through the 
46 neck of {Florida* and thence to the extreme north, and finally, 
" the post road from Washington to New Orleans, are the priti- 
" e4pal national works which I have always regarded as entitled 
" to the patronage of Congress. And I am prepared to carry 
"•them on, pari passu, as soon as our financial resources will 
" enable us to do it." — [See his Letter in the U. S. Telegraph, 
April 1th, 1828. 

" I think the Southern and Western States are the natural 
" advocates of a system of Internal Improvements ; and I regret 
" that the constitutional scruples of a portion of the southern 
"people, should prevent a hearty co-operation." — [The same 
letter as above. 

(Signed,) " GEORQE M'DUFFIE." 

MR. M'BUFFIE IN 1831. 

"Shall we be terrified by mere phantoms of blood, when our 
'♦ancestors, for less cause, encountered the dreadful reality? 
"Great God! are we the descendants of those ancestors — are 
" we freemen — are we men — grown men — to be frightened from 
" the discharge of our most sacred duty, and the vindication ot" 
" our most sacred rights, by the mere nursery stories of raw- 
£iead and bloody-bones." — [His Charleston Dinner Spe-ech.. 
MR. M'DUFFIE IN 1824. 

" A man who will contend that our government is- a confedera- 
" cy of independent States, whose independent sovereignty was 
" never in any degree renounced, and that it may be controlled 
" or annulled at the will of the several independent States or sove- 
" reignties can scarcely be regarded as belonging tv the present 
" generation. The several independent sovereign States con- 
trol the General Government M This is anarehy itself. — [See 
Jlemarks appended by Mr. M* Duffies to his Internal Improvement 
Speech, of November, 1824, page 8., 

I have faithfully alternated Mr. M'Dufiie's opinion, and if he 
thinks after making this tremendous surrender of power to the 
General Government, whieh he has done in his " One of the 
People" and his Congressional speech on Internaljlmprovement; 
and the denial of our Government being a confederacy of inde- 
pendent sovereignties, can console himself and his friends that 
they have had no agency in forging chains for their children, I. 
Ijave no motive to envy that consolation. 

X wili now compare gome of the political views of Governor 1 



Ijfamiltoa, «s tfiey nave "been presented to the World Bf^lffenGyf 
limes on the same political subjects. 

MR. HAMILTON in 1821. 
This gentleman in 1821, found Mr. M'DumVs numbers signed 
"One of the People." floating in the newspapers, and ad- 
miring the principles they contained, collected and published 
them in a pamphlet, and to give them great fame, prefixed an 
" Advertisement" thereunto, in which he has adopted the 
principles as his own. A number of which I have just stated, 
in comparing Mr. M'Duffie's opinions, and which show not only 
the adoption, but the sacred estimation in which these principles 
Were likewise held by Gov. Hamilton: I make the following ex- 
tracts therefrom. lie there says: 

" In preserving the subjoined Essays from the fugitive columns 
s8 of a newspaper, and in placing them in a form more perma* 
41 nent and enduring, we conceive we are paying no more than «, 
"just homage to the sacred principles, they inculcate." — [See 
"his advertisement prefixed to " One of the People." 

"The basis, however, of the argument in.which the "Trio" 
" indulge is in contending " for a strict and literal construction ef 
" the Constitution," and in affirming an absolute negation of ever- 
" ry thing wearing the aspe-t of an "implied power." This con- 
" struction, as their own reasoning proves, would limit the sphere 
"of our National Charter, merely to those suicidal efforts, 
" which in the end would have produced its dissolution, as a. 
" matter of inevitable consequence. To these views the " Tri- 
" umvirate" added the tocsin of "State Sovereignty;" a noto 
" which has been sounded in " the Ancient Dominion" with such 
"an ill omened blast, but .with no variety, by them, to relieve 
"its dull and vexatious dissonance." — [See his Advertisement* 
MR. HAMILTON IN 1S30. 

" The writers of the Trio" (the articles to which " One of the 
"People" was a reply) had evidently in view the object of 
"anointing Mr. Crawford for the Presidency, amidst all their 
"parade of patriotism, and this at the expense of the rest of the 
"Administration. To eornbat this pious crusade, is the busi- 
" ncss of these numbers of " One of the People" which we have 
"omitted, to the loss, we readily allow, of those who relish 
" overwheming ridicule and triumphant sarcasm." I dm now 
"satisfied thai I did great injustice to the motives qfmanp of 
if the friends of that gentleman, to whose enlightened forecast, 
" subsequent events have borne the most irrefutable testimony.** 
See Mr. Hamilton's letter. Courier 23 August, 1830. 

"I had taken up somewhat on trust, without much examitta- 
'" Hon, but with no other than the purest motives, opinion;-' 
"in som^ rtnv^^s (htft witjj what I the'n supposed prdjjgt 



20 

■ ■• - (If) i nleui-ated f o snsUnn some of its implied j*«\sfer&, ,r — &&- 
•v{?wc Letter. 

[' 1 now think after an experience of nine years, that the pro 
•'serration of the Constitution and the salvation of the South, 
" depends on a strict construction. — See same Letter. 
Mil. HAMILTON IN 1821. 

" The argument of " One of the People" is now presented in- 
" an unbroken succession, familiar to the most ordinary, and 
" gratifying to the most comprehensive understanding. The* 
" truths that are unfolded are in their nature essentially im~ 
" perishable." — [See his Advertisement to " One of the People." 

Although those imperishable truths have already been un~ 
folded in the history of Mr. M'Duflle's opinions, yet as this- 
second eulogy is so transcendent, it may tend the better to illus- 
trate their intrinsic worth by presenting some of them at least* 
with Mr. Hamilton's latter opinions. The following quotation 
from "One of the People" we did not give Mr. M'Duffie the- 
benefit of, though it equally applies to both gentlemen. — It says 
to " the Trio." 

"I understand you to affirm, that in expounding the Federal 
w Constitution we should be " tied down to the strict letter" of 
" that instrument, and that the General Government, was not 
"made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the power s- 
" delegated to itself but that, as in all other cases of compact- 
•• among parties having no common judge, each party has a right 
if to judge for itself." — As t-'iesemay be considered the concen- 
trated essence of all the wild and destructive principles that- 
"have ever been advanced, in relation to the subjects under 
" consideration, and as they constitute the basis of acontemplated 
"revolution in the administration of the General Government; I 
" have been particular in using your very language, lest I should bo 
w suspected of giving my own impressions of the result of your 
"arguments, or more correctly speaking, of your quotations," 
$ev " One o* the People, pages" 13 14. 

"In asserting that we ought not to travel out of the "strict 
" letter" of the Constitution, I am almost disposed to believe, in 
" charity, that you were ignorant of your own proposition. — For 
" ii", with its obvious and necessary consequences before you, I 
"could believe you would still maintain it, I should be compel- 
led to think very unfavorably of your characters, as nothing 
M is more clearly demonstrable than that your rule of construe* 
" Uon would paralyze every living energy of the constitution, 
"and absolutely annihilate the government. Without implied 
"and incidental powers, almost the entire mass of means by 
"which the machine of government is kept in motion, could no£ 
"be wielded a single moment, but would fall from the hands o£ 
."the a^^tisJ*atib|j;"-r-[" One of the People." page Idr 



MR. HAMILTON IN 1831. 

u 1 do not come forward to apologize or to make qualifications* 
*'and exceptions for a doctrine which I believe to be essential 
** to the political rights of a sovereign State in this Union, and 
41 the civil freedom of its citizens. It is altogether true, that in 
■" October, 1828, in addressing my former and most highly valued 
** constituents of Colleton, I did express my undoubting convic- 
-" tion in the validity and abiding confidence in the efficacy of 
"Nullifiation, as a peaceful and effectual mode of resisting, 
■** within the limits of a State in this Confederacy, an act of usur- 
" pation on the part of the General Government." — [His Dinucr 
Speech, 4th of July, 1831, in Charleston. 

Compare the above nullifying sentiment of Governor Hamil- 
ton in 1831, with the following imperishable truths which he -so 
enthusiastically pressed upon the public attention: 
MR. HAMILTON IN 1821. 

"You assert that when any conflict shall occur betw T een tha 
** General and State Governments, as to the extent of their res- 
*• pective powers, " each party has a right to judge for itself." I 
" confess I am at a loss to know how such a proposition 
** ou^ht to be treated. No climax of political heresies can be 
** imagined in which this might not fairly claim the most promi- 
** nent place. It resolves the governtment at once, into the ele- 
" ment of physical force ; and introduces us directly into a 
*** scene of anarchy and blood. There is not a single power 
** delegated to the General Government, which it would not be 
** in the power of every State Government to destroy, under the 
ii authority of this licentious principle." — [" One of the Pco* 
pie" page 16. 

On the subject of Internal Improvement, Mr. Hamilton said 
much, but wrote little. He was however, the great supporter 
of that system up to 1825. In the great contest in the House 
of Representatives, in 1824, which settled the question in favor 
of the power of the General Government over Internal Im- 
provement, Mr. Hamilton, in one of his ablest speeches, said:- — 

" He hoped before long, he should see East Indiamen passing 
"along a canal through Florida point into the Gulf of Mexico, 
*' thence through the Isthmus of Darien into the Pacific Ocean." 

This is given on the authority of General Mercer, who men- 
tioned it in a publie speech on Internal Improvement in presence 
of Mr. Hamilton, who replied, he had been once caught, but 
(Would take care in future. 

I will now advert a little to the different political opinions of 
Oem Hayne. Although they are short, yet they are pregnant. 
GEN. HAYNE IN 1824. 

This gentleman took his seat in the Senate of the U. States'' 
Xn 1§S3 ; ip 18&£ fie joined the Internal Ioiprovem-ent party, vixd 



\ve&t every length with thorn in establishing the great principle 
of appropriating $30,000 for furnishing surveys, plans and es- 
timates for making Roads and Canals. It was considered as 
having established the principle forever, and $30,000 have been 
appropriated in accordance with that established principle every 
year since. When the Bill making this appropriation was before 
the Senate, it was proposed by Mr. Van Dyke, of Delaware, to 
amend it by adding a 

"Proviso, That previous to making any of the aforesaid sur- 
" veys, the consent of the States through which the said sur- 
" veys are to be made, shall first be obtained by the President, 
<c from the Legislatures of the States, respectively, agreeing that 
ie such surveys be made." 

" It was determined in the negative. Yeas — 15. Nays — 28. 
Mr. Hayne voted in the negative. — [See Senate Journal, 1st 
j&ession 18th Congress, pages 315-310. 

It was further proposed by Mr. Smith of Maryland, to 
amend the Bill by inserting the following proviso: — 

u Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed 

" to affirm or admit a power in Congress, on their own authority 

" to make roads or canals within any of the States of the Union.*' 

''It passsed in the negative. Yens — 21. Nays — 25." 

Mr. Haync voted in the negative. — [See Journal 1st Session 

ISih Congress, Pages 316-317. 

It was then moved by Mr. Holmes of Maine, to add to the- 
first section the following: 

" Provided, and the faith of the IT. States is hereby pledged, 
(hat no money shall ever be expended for roads and canals ex- 
cept it shall be. among the several states, and in the same pro- 
portion as direct taxes are laid and assessed by the provisions 
of the Constitution. 

" It was determined in the negative. Yeas — 19. Nays — 27.'* 
Mr. Hayne voted in the negative. — See Senate Journal 1st 
Session 18th Congress, Pages 317, 318. 

u And no further amendment having been proposed, the bill 
" was reported to the Senate." 

" On the question slidl this bill be read a third time?'.' 
" It was determined in the affirmative. Yeas — 25. Nays — 21." 
Mr. Hayne voted in the affirmative. — [See Senate Journal 1st 
Session 18th Congress, Page 318. 

Mr. Hayne by his first vote denied to the States the right of 
feeincr consulted what roads or canals they wanted, but placed 
the power in the hands of Congress alone to determine what, 
roads and canals the States have need of. 

By his second vote, he decided that Congress had powder, on 
their own authority to make what roads and canals they pleased, 
afid as many of them, without leave of the States. 



23 

By liis third vote he clearly decided the question that Coij* 
gress have authority to give the public monies to whatsoever 
States they please, without any regard to a fair and equitable 
division amongst all the States. 

By his 4th vote he passed the bill which fixed, not only an ap~ 
propriation of $30,000, from your treasury for that year, but has 
been followed up by an appropriation of 30,000, every year; not 
for making of Roads and Canals, but simply for surveying the 
tracts where roads and canals were to be run. And with these 
appropriations of public money under that act, there have been 
as many Roads and Canals surveyed as will cost the General 
Government $500,000,000. More money than the whole re- 
venue of your Government will amount to in twenty years. — » 
This estimate is not too large. The Florida Point, which has 
been surveyed under that law, cannot possibly be made a safe 
and permanent ship navigation for $200,000,000. And the 
whole of these surveys, or the greater part of them, were made 
under the immediate direction of Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary 
of War. It was this law of 1824 which set the whole community 
inad for Roads and Canals. 

Mr. Hayne was among the first, in his speech on Footed 
Resolution, which will appear by reference to that speech, to 
ctv out against the " Northern" States as being the promoters 
of the system of Internal Improvement, one of the great bur- 
dens, upon the South, against which he was pouring out his com- 
plaints; and in which he took special care to eulogise the West. 
And as I have the Senate Journal before me, containing the 
yeas and nays of the Senators who voted. And as it is ac- 
knowledged by all, that, this law was intended, and was actual, 
]y so considered, at the time of its passage, as settling the power 
on Congress forever, I will show by what sections of the Union 
that law was passed. 

There were 25 yeas.— There were 21 nays. 

Among these who voted for the law were 16 Western mem- 
bers; 6 South of New England and North of the Potomac; 8 
Yankees; 1 Southern member, who was Mr. Hayne. 

Among those who voted against the law, were eight Yankees; 
seven East of the mountains and South of the Potomac; five 
South of N. England and North of the Potomac; and one Western 
member. Thus it appears from the Journal, that of the 46 mem- 
bers of the Senate, Mr. Hayne was the only Southern member 
who voted for the law, which has had more agency in fixing 
Upon us a system which he now so emphatically execrates, than 
all the laws that Congress ever enacted. And I will vouch for 
it, there is not a member of the 46 who voted for or against ftmt 
{aw> who was ever in favor of milTifrcati-onj 



M 

Km HAYNE IN I83& 

We have 1 seen the system of Internal Improvement, whidi 
came recommended to us by the fair promise of unnumbered 
blessings, degraded into a disgraceful scramble for the public 
tnoney, and threatening speedily to become, in the prophetic 
language of Mr. Jefferson, a source of boundless patronage to 
the executive, of jobbing to the members of Congress and their 
friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money — a source of 
eternal scramble among the members who can get most money 
Wasted in their States, and in which they will get most who are- 
meanest. — [See Mr. Hayne'' s Dinner Speech 1st of July, 1830, 
Charleston, page 18. 

It was the very law for which Mr. Hayne voted in 1824, to 
which Mr. Jefferson alluded in the expressions quoted in the 
above paragraph. 

I will here leave Mr. Hayne and take a short but respectful 
notice of Governor Miller's politics, as he has been referred to 
Iky his friend Mr. H. L. Pinckney. 

MR. MILLER IN 1817. 

Since 1824, until Nullification arose among us, Mr. Miller was 
considered a correct politician. But whilst he was in Congress, 
he too, assisted to lay the foundation of the Tariff and Internal 
Improvement systems. In the House of Representatives. The 
following resolution was submitted by Mr. Williams. 

" Resolved, That the internal duties be repealed, and that the 
"committee of ways and means be directed to report a bill for 
" that purpose." — [See House Jour. 2d Sess..,l^th Con. page 400. 

"Mr. Mills moved further to amend the said resolutions, by 
"inserting after the word "repealed" the following words: 
" And also, that the duties at present imposed on brown Sugar, 
" eoffee, bohea, souchoung and other black teas." — [See House 
Jour. 2d Sess. 14M. Con. page 436. 

Afterwards the House again resumed the consideration of the 
resolution submitted by Mr. Williams, to abolish the internal du- 
ties; and the question recurred on the first member of the 
amendment proposed yesterday by Mr. Mills, which was to re- 
duce the duty on Brown Sugar one half. 

Mr* Miller voted for the indefinite postponement,, by which 
the bill was lost. — See House Journal, 2d Session, 14tfA Coa* 
g'ress, pages 442, 443. 

MR. MILLER IN 1818. 

In 1817, Mr. Madison negatived Mr. Calhoun's famous Bill 
for establishing a system of Internal Improvement and setting- 
apart a large fund for carrying it on. But the next year the 
Question was again revived, and the following Resolution was 
adopted: 

" Rtfsolvedy That the Secretary of the Treasury be instructed 



^ t > 



k 'to prepare and report to this House, at their next Session, €t 
*' plan for the application of such means as are within the power 
14 of Congress, to the purpose of opening- and improving- roads, 
*' and making canals; together with a statement of the underta- 
kings of that nature, which, as objects of public improvement, 
"may require and deserve the aid of the government; and also, a 
''statement qf works of the nature above mentioned which have 
"been commenced; the progress which has been made in them; 
44 the means and prospect of their being completed; the public 
" improvements carried on by States or by companies, or incor- 
porations which have been associated for such purposes, to 
"which it may be deemed expedient to subscribe or afford assis- 
tance, the terms and conditions of such associations, and the 
""state of their funds, and such information, as in the opinion 
" of the Secretary shall be material in relation to the objects of 
"this resolution." 

Mr. Miller voted in favor of this resolution. — See House Jour- 
nal, 1st Session, l&tk Congress, page 422, 

It was the adoption of this Resolution that gave the first im- 
pulse to associating the General Government with incorporated 
companies for carrying on works of Internal Improvements, at 
a great expense without any profit. It were these companies 
that were the most importunate in calling for appropriations for 
Internal Improvement. And the reason was quite obvious; be- 
cause when their own funds were exhausted the United States 
Treasury could supply the deficiency 

At the same Session we find recorded in the Journal of the 
House of Representatives the following: 

"An engrossed bill to increase the duties on iron in bars and 
"bolts, iron in pigs, castings , nails, and alum, and to disallow 
"the drawback of duties on the re-exportation of gunpowder, 
"was also read the third time, and passed." — [House Journal, 
1st Session, lath Congress, page 469. 

Mr. Miller voted for the passage of the bill. 
MR. MILLER IN 1S30. 

"The great question which has agitated this country for the 
" last fourteen years, is, has Congress the power to tax all other 
" branches of domestic industry, in order to give the proceeds 
"to the manufacturers of certain articles? The injustice of 
" making, by law, one man pay to support another, is so appa- 
" rent, that the right to do so ought to be manifest, before it is 
" asserted." — See kis Message No. 1 to the Legislature, Novem- 
ber 23d, 1830. 

" If Congress ean constitutionally impose a tax upon the far- 
" mer for the benefit of the manufacturer, then he has no legi- 
" timate cause of complaint. It is one of the grievances inci- 
ei dent to the social compact. But if sueh right does not exist. 



2& 

*"* it isa most sacred duly which the fanner owes lo himself, »«&* 
44 to submit to that which is not binding upon him. That an 
"unconstitutional Jaw is not binding, is a truism no one will 
"deny."—- See same Message, No. 1, Not* 22d, 1830. 

Mr. Milter, in his official message, has carried back the great 
agitation of the Tariff, to a period of " fourteen years," which 
was one year previous to his voting against reducing the duty oil 
Brown Sugar from three cents, to one and a half cents per 
pound: And two years previous to his voting " to increase the 
duties on Iron in bars and bolts, Iron in pigs, castings, nails 
<ind alum." And this increased duty was put on for the express 
purpose of benefiting the manufacturer, and Mr. Miller knew 
it at the time. And if he thinks it is a most sacred duty the 
farmer owes to himself not to submit to it, let them settle it be- 
tween them. Perhaps there is no one article in the whole scope of 
political economy on which a duty would be so oppressive on 
r<ll classes, as this duty on Iron, and particularly, so on the poor 
laboring classes of the community. 

I know the result will be censure upon me for this retrospective 
view which I have taken of the political sentiments, speeches, 
essays and Congressional votes of those Statesmen, if there be 
any portion of the citizens who are so devoted to party feelings 
as to prefer error to fair statements. But I cannot believe for a 
moment that these gentlemen will themselves do so. They 
will either deny the statements and show wherein I have erred, 
and if I have erred, I will most cheerfully correct it, or they will 
admit the truth of the statements, and give tlic reasons to the publio 
why they have changed so materially their political views on the 
same subjects. Nor can I for one moment believe that the great 
community of S. Carolina, who are its ornaments in peace and 
its shield in war, who love truth and shun error, will be dispos- 
ed, at a time when party strife lias convulsed our country, to 
turn a deaf ear to any thing which can lead to a right under- 
standing of the great cause of our trouble. And if I have told 
the truth; if I have laid before an honeat community facts, im- 
portant facts in the history of our country, heretofore known 
only to discordant politicians, they will judge of the facts them- 
selves, not of my motives. The idle tales that are already afloat 
that I a i not upon speaking terms with those gentlemen, is not 
true. With Mr. Calhoun, particularly, I have always been in 
the habits of courteous and familiar conversations. And so with 
General Haync. And so with Mr. Miller, until he voluntarily 
jvuve me a written dispensation, ten months ago. Since which 
1 have never seen him. If the other gentlemen and myself have 
no familiar intercourse, it has not been my seeking. 

Mr. Calhoun's speeches upon the Tariff and Internal Improve- 
ment have not perished with the fleeting Newspapers which 



2? 

which first conveyed them to the World. They are recorded in 
the histories of yonr country. So is his famous "Exposition" 
of 1828. They had become textbooks, for the Manufacturers 
and Internal Improvement advocates. Mr. M'DufuVs " One of 
the People" and his speeches in Congress iri favor of Internal 
Improvement, have had an immense circulation throughout tho 
Union. They were used as text hook? also. Both these geh- 
tlemen have maintained in their speeches and writings, in its 
fullest extent, that' Congress have the power to do whatsoever is 
" for the public good and general welfare." They say in these 
very passages which I have quoted, that the constitution had 
given this power to Congress. If Congress has the power, 
was it not precisely what the manufacturers wanted? A majority 
of Congress have taken Mr. Calhoun and Mr. M'Buffie at their 
word, and upon that very ground, have given you the Tariff 
Which you now labor under, and give you an expensive system 
of Internal Improvement to be (cd by it. I always opposed that 
doctrine. I cannot admit, as these gentlemen have done, that 
Congress have the power to do whatever " the public good and 
general welfare" require. And therefore I always said, and 
now say, that Congress has no power to lay a Tariff to protect 
manufactures, cr to protect any other persons, or any other 
pursuit. Mr. Hamilton has adopted Mr. M'Duffie's "One of 
the People" in its fullest extent. Therefore adopted the " Pub- 
lic good and general welfare" doctrine with it. A doctrine that 
will clothe Congress with more power than any despot of Europe 
lias ever thought it safe to exercise. Mr. Haync and Mr. Mil- 
ler have acted the part which I have attributed to each of them, 
respectively. 

What I have said, I have said respectfully. I have not 
charged them with dishonorable motives, nor with corruption. 
But they are the leaders in the mighty storm that is thickening 
around us. And if they have once led the public mind astray, 
may they not lead it astray again? If they have aided by their 
errors in political life, no matter how pure their motives, to bring 
upon you a calamity, ought they not, individually, when they 
found this storm was gathering, to have stept forward, and 
frankly have said to the community "We have erred; we have 
contributed to bring this calamity upon you, but we now see our 
error?" Would the people have implicitly, adopted them as 
iheir political guides to lead them through the perils of a Revo- 
lution or separation from the other states forever? 

Mr. Hamilton has acknowledged that he wrote the advertise- 
ment prefixed to Mr. M'Duflie's " One of the People," but says 
he wrote it 

" Under as great, but as natural a delusion as ever blinded the 
il eves of man." 



2H 

&nd he then says, he now thinks after an experiment of n'me- 
Srears, that the preservation of the constitution and the salvation 
of the South depend on a strict construction of the constitution. 
But he never made these confessions until near two years after 
he had sounded the tocsin. The letter bears date 23d August, 
1830, and he tells us in his speech of the 4th of July, 1831 that 
he had come out for nullification in October 1828. I am free to 
admit all the frankness which the most liberal construction will 
afford to this disclosure, but I w r ould ask what profit will tho 
community derive from it? If Mr. Hamilton chooses to go from 
one extreme to another — after his acknowledged error of nine. 
5 ears duration has just discovered that he has been under as 
great and as natural a delusion as ever blinded the eyes of man, 
what security have you, however honest he may be, that he is 
not now under as great a delusion as ever, with ten fold horrors 
hanging over it? And have you any security that those othe? 
■Statesmen may not discover, some nine or ten years hence, that 
^nullification, or putting the State upon her sovereignty against the- 
General Government has not been an essential error? Are not 
ihese considerations worthy of your reflection. 

I have, my fellow citizens, detained you longer on those pre* 

!iramary subjects than I could have wished for, but I deemed 

them to partake largely of the essence of this great political 

Drama, therefore could not shorten it, without doing injustice 

o both sides of the question. 

I will now take up the subject of Nullification itself, and en- 
deavour to analyze it as far as I can, from such lights as I have 
been able to obtain. It is a creature of circumstances. Its im 
port is not yet settled. It is made to mean whatever will best 
^uit the company in which it is introduced. It has become a 
fashionable instrument in the hands of its advocates to play 
upon the passions and prejudices of honest men, whose feelings 
they spare no pains, nor labor to rouse and animate. It flou- 
rishes most in towns and villages. Three or four of those nul- 
lifying gentlemen meet a company of highly respectable honest 
men from the country, who, being perfectly honest themselves, 
arc naturally led to believe every body else are so; and from 
that uneontaminated purity of mind which they have cherished 
through life, unacquainted with the fantastic tricks and strata- 
gems of aspiring politicians, their honest credulity is practised 
«pon. They are tirst informed, gravely, that they are laboring 
•under heavy burdens from the Tariff, of which they are totally. 
ignorant. To illustrate this latent burden some nullifying phi- 
losopher is called, and after a metaphysical lecture of half an 
hour long, he concludes by assuring them that they most un- 
doubtedly pay, every year, forty bales of their cotton out of 
•evzry Imndrerl, to the Yankees, as a bounty to their roanufati- 



•>-« 



^jreis'; ami that tficy will fie ground into dust uules> Hiey will 
join the nullifiers, as the only means of putting it down. 

Those honest unsuspectiiag country gentlemen astonished at 
this new information!, are naturally led to enquire who tii$(l 
this new hurden upon them. Those Town and Village gentle- 
men reply, it was the Federalists. And when asked who are 
those Federalistst? The reply is, " The Union and State Right* 
party," and then they point to two gentlemen only of thai party, 
and suppose as those two were reputed to be Federalists, every 
man who is opposed to nullification must be a Federalist Iike- 
fcise. This is certainly an unfair way of judging the political 
character of a political party. And one I should never have re- 
ported to. But if the Nullification party will insist upon it that 
!wo gentlemen who oppose Nullification are Federalists, and, 
therefore, all who oppose Nullification, are as a matter of 
course, Federalists also, they must permit the rule to work both 
ways. And if we are to cull the two ranks of the parties for 
Federalists, there can be ten Federalists found in the Nullifica- 
tion ranks for every two that can be found in the Union ranks: 
Therefore, by their own rule of calculation, there are five Nul- 
lifying Federalists for one Union Federalist. Consequently 
the Nullification party are live times as federal as the Union party. 
This is a fair deduction. The two gentlemen to whom they so 
constantly, and so unkindly allude, although Federalists, were 
patriots and soldiers during the late war with Great Britain. 
One was a General of Brigade, the other, Colonel of a Regiment. 
and both confessedly as brave men as ever drew a sword. Will 
trhe nullifying gentlemen take up this chanllenge, and say, the 
voice of their own leading Federalists was for war, during than 
portentous period? 

This trick, because it is nothing but a trick, has been gotten 
up to excite prejudices in ihe minds of the mass of the commu- 
nity, who in former days had just grounds to beware of Fede- 
ralists. And by associating Federalism with opposition to Nul- 
lification, they hope to excite the same indignant feeling against 
the Union party, that formerly existed against Federalism itself, 
and thereby gain over honest men as proselytes to their party* 
before they have had time to find out the cheat. 

Federalism has nothing to do with this question. If it had* 
who revived Federalism after its sun had set never to rise again, 
at the close of the late war; when the Federalists ihemseh ; > 
acknowledged they could hold together no longer as a party? 1 
answer the question for them: Mr. Calhoun and his friends. 
Major Hamilton, then, now the Chief Magistrate of your State, 
and Vice President of the Club formed in Charleston, for pub- 
lishing- and distributing Tracts among the virtnons and u:*in<- 
fMjm-ed part o£ the co.m.mimi.'y, snug to F-erdr-rt: IT-ni Kg* Bpqtiftbut' 



in I&J1. The following specimen of fascinating etaquestce $f 
that gentleman, not surpassed for beauty or pathos by any 
thing he has said, in his late 4th of July speech, in favor of 
State Sovereignty and Nullification, was the funeral dirge which 
laid Federalism to repose in the green sea. That gentleman 
after entertaining the Revolution and Cincinnati Societies upon 
other important topics, turned their attention to the sublime sub- 
ject of an Union of the Federal and Republican parties, who 
had previously been opposed for thirty years. We here give 
his own language 

"These are not the only reflections of an cxhilirating charao 
" ter which the late war is calculated to excite. It has led to the- 
"extinction of those parties, the collisions of which once 
" weakened our country, and disturbed the harmony of it's socie* 
" ty. — See Major Hamilton's Speech, ±ih of July* 1821, page 
17, 

"I come not here to burn the torch of Alccto — to me there is 
"no lustre in its tires, nor cheering warmth in its blaze. Let 
""us rather oiler and mingle our congratulations, that those un- 
"happy differences which alienated one portion of the commu- 
M nity from the rest, are at an end, and that a vast fund of the 
" genius and worth of our country has been restored to its ser- 
" vice, to give new vigor to its career of power and prosperity." 
See same Speech, same page. 

"To this blessed consummation the administration of our 
" venerable Monroe, has been a powerful auxiliary." — Sarat 
Speech, same page. 

"The delusions of past years have rolled away, and the mists 
"which once hovered over the forms of now unshaded bright- 
"ness are dissipated forever. We can all meet and exchange 
" our admiration and love in a generous confraternity of feeling, 
" whether we speak of our Jefferson or our Adams, our Madison 
l " or our Hamilton, our Finckney or our Monroe; the associa- 
'* tions of patriotism are awakened, and we forget the distance 
" in the political zodiac which once separated these illustrious 
" luminaries, in the full tide of glory they are pouring on the 
" brightest page of our history. This unanimity of sentiment 
41 is no sickly calm, in which the high energies of the nation are 
" sunk into a debilitating paralysis. "-[.See same Speech, page 18. 

" This union can only annoy the Demagogue, who lives by the 
" proscription of one half of his fellow-citizens, and in the deJu- 
" sions of a distempered state of public opinion. But to him who 
" loves his country as a beautiful whole, not scarred and cut into 
" the selfish compartment of sects and of schisms such a picture 
*< is one of unmixed triumph and gratulation" — [See Maj. Ham- 
ilton? s Speech, 4dh July, \&2\,pagc 19. 

After such a solemn aet of oblivion, extended in ^oeh an e^*- 



i 



31 

tatic ilourisii of panegyric to his friends, and soeli an ''ex- 
change of admiration and love in a generous confraternity of 
feeling," (these are his own sympathetic words,) who could !iave> 
imagined that the centinels of the Nullifying gentlemen, ou 
the out posts should have been heard to cry from the watch tow- 
er, in undertones, you will be destroyed by the Federalists untcsn 
you take protection under our banner. 

As it regards the Tariff and Internal Improvement, my fellow 
citizens, I think now as I have always thought since tiie adoption 
of our Resolutions in the Legislature of our State, in 1825. I 
then saw a developement of public opinion against them. Pub- 
lic opinion, and public opinion alone must correct the evil. 
When that shall be brought to bear, these systems must and will 
give way. But be assured they will never give way to the vio- 
lence of a party in a single State. In the nature of things, iu 
the common course of events, these systems were gradually wea- 
ring down. At the close of the session of Congress in May, 1830, 
there was abundant reason to believe that nothing but a little 
lime was necessary to a completion of our wishes. The Tariff, 
almost the only thing complained of by that party who seek re- 
dress through Nullification, had evidently sunk in the estimation 
of the manufacturers themselves. Many who had believed that 
great wealth was inseparably connected with a cotton or wool- 
len manufactory, had, through a misguided zeal, embarked the 
last farthing in those establishments. 

Butchers had quit their stalls, Shoe-makers had forgotten that 
wholesome maxim, ne sutor ultra cregidam, and had gone be* 
yond their lasts ; Black-smiths, Tailors and Mechanics of various 
pursuits, had quit their shops for the spinning jenny and power 
loom, and whilst looking with longing hopes for the full tide of 
over-grown wealth, not only their new-born hopes were blasted, 
but the earnings of their whole lives in their former pursuits, 
were swept away in an instant ; and the only source of relief 
was the clemency of an insolvent debtor's law Hundreds be- 
came bankrupts. Can we suppose for a moment that such a 
state of things could last, and that men would pursue an avocation 
that had beggared themselves and families? 

There is another fact upon which no man, howsoever violent 
he may be, can shut his eyes ;. the payment of the National Debt 
is fast approaching. When that period arrives, there will then 
no pretext exist for continuing the tariff as a protective system any 
longer. There are many other concurrent circumstances, all 
tending the same way, which I will not now stop to enumerate. 

The Internal Improvement system, of which Mr. M'Duffie so 
loudly and repeatedly boasts Mr. Calhoun to be the author, and 
of which Mr. Calhoun, himself, in all his displays in his esposi* 
rioii on our oppressions, has preserved a j*rtfcand sileiree, was 



32 

literally wa'rlyzed at th« close of the session o/Csagre-stfin May*, 
1830. ana through that, the energy and disinterested patriotism of 
President Jackson. I say disinterested, because he could have 
acted from no other possible motive. His political friends have 
threatened his' political destruction if he would dare to put his 
negative upon their favorite Road-bills. He dared do anv thina* 
which he believed would maintain the purity of the constitution, 
and preserve the equal rights of his fellow-citizens; and he did 
negative those bills; and in doing so he crippled the favorite 
system of some of the favorite sens of South Carolina. Built 
up by them, and fostered by them for more favored climes than 
our own. For I know hot a solitary instance in which either 
Mr. Calhoun or the members from S. Carolina, who were asso- 
ciated with him in that grand political scheme, ever asked the 
general government for so much as one cent to make a road or 
canal in this State, except the efforts of Mr. M'Duffie to procure- 
appropriations, as I have been informed, to the Charleston Rail- 
road; and which it would seem he has now abandoned, as appears 
from his late speech in Charleston, unless done by a direct tax. 

And when President Jackson had gone further, and done more 
than any other man living, to put down this system, instead of 
contributing to his purpose, they have snatched it from his hands, 
to finish what he had so triumphantly began, by the new process 
of nullification ; as if they envied him the victory he was about 
to achieve, and were ambitious of transferring it to themselves, 
that they might have it to boast, that if they had raised it up, 
they had been able to put it down. 

When Nullification was first broached in Charleston by Mr- 
Hayne in July 1830, he forbore to mention the important check 
which President Jackson had given to Internal Improvement, 
notwithstanding he commented on it. He spoke of the Presi 
dent's Veto, on the Maysville Road; and called it " a gleam of 
light," only. He might have presented the extent to which 
that Road was intended to be run, which was about 500 miles. 
And he might have mentioned the solicitude manifested for its 
safety, among the Western members of Congress, who were 
the devoted political friends of President Jackson; to all of whom 
he gave great dissatisfaction by that veto. He might have said 
to his splendid audience, that President Jackson had at the same 
time put his Veto upon the Washington and Frederic Turn-pike 
Road, which also produced a great agitation, and particularly 
among the Maryland members. He might have said, he put his 
Veto upon a Turnpike Road in Connecticut, running into Mi- 
chigan Territory, of considerable expectation. He might have 
said that he had retained two other Bills, one appropriating 
$100,000 of public monies for the completion of the Portland 
•and Lotfisvillc Carta!, to which the General Gormimtfut had A 



33 

ready appropriated $200,000; the other a Bill, called tlie Light 
House Bill, providing for "building twenty-five new Light Houses, 
directing twenty-five new Beacons, and Buoys, and for survey- 
ing and clearing out thirty-eight Rivers, and Creeks, no body 
knew where. A collection of projects unprecedented. And 
he might have said that the President detained those Bills for 
the express purpose of placing upon them his Veto. Which he 
did, and returned them to Congress at the beginning of the next 
session. 

Mr. Hayne might have said, that President Jackson had re- 
cently negociated a favorable treaty with Great Britain for open- 
ing to us again the West India trade, which would necessarily 
employ considerable capital that must be drawn from the manu- 
facturing interest, and of course diminish it. Mr. Hayne might 
have said that President Jackson was determined to pay the Na- 
tional Debt with the public monies instead of appropriating it to 
the making corporation roads and canals. 

Mr. Hayne might have said that a strong disposition was mani- 
fested in the House of Representatives to put down the Buffalo 
and New Orleans Turnpike Road. And that it was put down 
by a pretty considerable majority: And by men who two years 
before would have voted for it. This was the favorite road of 
Mr. Calhoun and of Mr. M'Duflie. Mr. Hayne might have said 
that, in the Senate, General Smith of Baltimore, the oldest, and 
most influential member of either House of Congress, with all 
his talents and address, could not prevail upon the Senate to 
take up and consider the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Bill. 

In short, Mr. Hayne might have said, that after President 
Jackson had negatived a number of road bills, that a general 
temper prevailed in the Senate to pause upon the subject 

I presume Mr. Hayne must have forgotten all those facts, or 
viewing them very differently from other members, supposed 
they afforded no light. But I have had the misfortune to differ 
with Mr. Hayne upon this, as I have upon several other impor- 
tant political questions, yet I cannot but suppose this communi- 
ty will most probably think with me, that those facts taken all 
together, afforded a torrent of light instead of a mere gleam. 

Besides all these things, with a number of others of the same 
tendency to do away both the Internal Improvement and Tariff 
Systems, there is no member of Congress, who had any know- 
ledge of the political economy of the country, and the ordinary 
pursuits of the American people, who did not know, that there 
were not one twentieth part of the people of the United States 
that are engaged in manufactures. Then I will ask any man, 
politician or no politician, to say, if he verily believes, that nine- 
teen twentieths of tjjis enlighfened people can find it necessary 



Ijo put this whole country itito a wild commotion, and endanger, 
at least, a separation of the Union; or to unsheath the sword 
and tinge it in a brother's blood, that we may put down a sys- 
tem at once, which there is a great probability may shortly be 
put down by gentler means, and leaves us still united? Is there 
a man in a country situated as ours is, with 12,000,000 of peo- 
ple, whose minds are as free as the air they breathe, that can 
ior a moment believe that public opinion, that mighty agent in 
human affairs, will not correct these evils if left to be combatted 
by reason alone, without it being necessary to interpose Nullifica- 
tion or any such violent measures? If it will, is there a man 
who will sit down and count the cost and count the hazards', 
that upon cool reflection, would not deprecate any such violent 
measures? I venture to say there is not, even among your most 
violent nullifiers, however zealous they may have been, unless-s 
it be some reckless politician whose fortunes are connected with 
his ambition. 

Is it not worth while to pause a little before we adopt this 
new-born doctrine of Nullification? Would it not be prudent 
fi'rst to examine whether its powers be so transcendant as they are 
represented to be by its admirers? And ought we not to en- 
quire whether the benefits they tell us will flow from its adop- 
tion, are not the mere creatures of imagination, worked into 
supposed realities by mistaken and precipitate politicians? 
And more espcially, should we not weigh with great de- 
liberation, what sacrifices we must inevitably make, and what 
political degradations we are doomed to endure, after its adop- 
tion, if adopted it should be? 

As regards its powers, they are wonderful indeed, if Ave are 
to believe its advocates. They tell us we shall at once get rid 
x>f the Tariff and Internal Improvement Systems, without any 
blood-shed, without any revolution, without destroying the har- 
mony of the Federal Union, and even without interrupting our 
claims; or forfeiting our rights in that Union. That it is per- 
fectly peaceful in its operations; dignified in its character; con- 
stitutional in its principles; and of such commanding influence, 
that South Carolina can plant herself in the centre and wield 
the whole system of the General Government. And further- 
more, whilst these operations are going on, we are to have an 
entire Free Trade system, (in South Carolina only.) The Ta- 
riff laws of the United States are to be wholly suspended, so far 
■US 1 we are concerned; and all goods imported from abroad, into 
this State, are to be duty free. And these halcyon days are to 
continue without interruption from the General Government 
Tintil Congress shall either repeal the Tariff laws, or three- 
fourths of the States shall call a convention to alter the constitu- 
tion After which the General Government is to be again un- 



3 



- 



trammelled, and go oif with its operations.^And then, but not till 
then, shall we be liable to pay any portion of the public due* 
that are necessary to sustain the General Government. During 
the whole of this tinie South Carolina is to remain in the Union, 
subject to none of its laws, enjoying all its immunities, and re- 
ceiving all its protection against foreign invasion and domestic vio- 
lence, without bearing any share of the public burdens: Send- 
ing her members to Congress to enact [laws for others, whilst 
her State legislature is nullifying thoseMaws as regards South 
Carolina, if she so wills it. 

These are the dogmas of the nullifying party; these contain 
the precise powers and benefits of nullification as developed by 
the leaders themselves ot that party, in their speeches, pam- 
phlets, tracts, and resolutions. And in the full confidence and 
belief of these happy results, there are thousands of our citi- 
zens, as honest and as virtuous men as ever lived, who have an 
abiding confidence in the efficacy of this heterogenous and vis- 
ionary process, because they had heard it from politicians in 
whom they had confided without analyzing its principles; many 
of whom are now investigating those dogmas for themselves, 
which must, like the " baseless fabric of a vision," give way at 
the touch. 

When this wonder-working policy was first agitated amongst 
lis, it was better known by the name of " the Soutli Carolina 
doctrines." This made it our own. The people at large, how- 
ever, could not so readily comprehend its virtues, coming from 
the source it did — from the very men, who, but the other day, 
had been the champions of the Tariff' and Internal Improvement 
Sysi ems, and who had loudly proclaimed the advantages of a; 
free construction of the constitvtion, and the necessity of "im- 
plied powers," to meet " the policy of a great and growing era- 
" pire, or the fresh lights, which the experience of our govern- 
" ment is perpetually affording." [See advert, to One of the 
People.] The better therefore to consecrate the doctrine of 
Nullification, recourse was had to the Virginia and Kentucky 
Resolutions of '98, known to have been drawn by Mr. Madison 
and Mr. Jefferson, and were thenceforth called the " Virginia 
doctrines;" and under the sacred banners of those illustrious 
sages, Mr. Madison and Mr. Jefferson, have these doctrines been 
recently marshalled, and trumpeted to the world. And so far as 
they have succeeded, they owe their prosperity to their associa- 
tion with the names of those dignified statesmen. 

Governor Hamilton in his last 4th of July speech, in Charles- 
ton, adverting to the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, by Mr. 
Jefferson, and the Virginia Resolutions of the same date, by 
3Is\ Mad!i-'M\ says': 



36 

151 They alPrmeti \a tettdeni verbis what South Carolina mean? 
6 '- by Nullification. " 

This fact is not admitted. The definition which I have just 
given of .South Carolina Nullification is literally correct, if we 
are to place confidence in those- who gave it birth, and who 
cherish it as the palladium of our liberties. It means neither 
more nor less than a constitutional right, as well as a constitu- 
tional duty in any single State, to arrest by force the laws of the 
United States whenever a majority of the people of that single 
State shall deem such laws to be unconstitutional; and hold the 
General Government in durance vile, until th? laws complained 
of be repealed; and yet remain, in the utmost harmony, an 
affiliated member of the Union, dictating as she may think fit, 
Ibut subject to no control. 

Let the language of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions 
fcc what it may, it is utterly impossible to imagine that Mr. 
Madison or Mr. Jefferson could have intended any such mon- 
strous and untenable doctrine. But the Resolutions clearly 
prove that no such object could have been intended. 

Governor Hamilton says, those Resolutions " affirm in toti- 
aem verbis what South Carolina means by Nullification." Mr. 
J\tadison who drew the Virginia Resolutions affirms they do not. 
There then is an issue fairly made up. In all controversies the 
decision must depend on the strength of the testimony. "What 
that testimony is we will examine. 

Governor Hamilton tells us in his 4th of July speech, that. 
at an early stage of this controversy, he wrote to a distin- 
guished politician of Virginia, who assured him that the Caro- 
lina doctrines were, according to his understanding; the true 
version of the Virginia Resolutions. It appears that Governor 
Hamilton himself had his doubts whether the Virginia Resolu- 
tions and Carolina Nullification contained the same meaning-, 
therefore he writes to his friend in Virginia. And what does 
that friend say to the Governor upon this very grave subject? 
"Why, he says, '* the Carolina doctrines were, according" to Ms 
"understanding, the true version of those Resolutions." Here 
We have the simple response of a gentleman, no doubt highly 
respectable, who tells us nothing but, " that the Carolina doc- 
trines were, according to his understanding, the true version." 
He gives us no reasons why he thinks so. This testimony 
might satisfy the Governor as a private gentleman, but when 
given as testimony to bear upon a great national question, we 
want, and of right, ought to have, from the witness himself, 
the Rationale, instead of a mere Dictum. Besides, it is to 
be recollected, the Governor has not told us to what extent he 
explained the Carolina doctrines. And the Carolina doctrines 
explained one year ago, »' in a very early stage of this centre- 



rersy," would be essentially different from the Carolina doctnuej, 
of the 4th of July last;. One year ago it was positively asser- 
ted by the nullifying party, that their object was nothing more 
than to ask for a Convention to remonstrate. Now they cluiiu 
nothing less than plenary powers to arrest the course of the 
General Government, and subvert its laws at pleasure. 

The Governor doubts, and doubting writes to his correspon- 
dent in Virginia, who doubts also, or why did he not give more 
than an equivocal answer? And these doubts arc the sum total 
of the evidence that goes to prove the South Carolina doctrines 
are the true version of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. 
And this is the authority upon which this tremendous responsi- 
bility has been assumed. There are no circumstances accom- 
panying those Resolutions in the sequel, that can lead in the 
remotest degree to sustain so much as a belief, that Virginia in* 
tended forcibly to arrest the operation of the laws of the Gene- 
ral Government, or to assume to herself the constitutional right 
of forcing Congress to call a Convention. And where then is 
the illustration contended for? 

Let us now examine the testimony on the other side, which 
goes to prove beyond all controversy that the Carolina doctrines 
are not the true version of these Resolutions. And what higher 
evidence can we offer than the positive and unequivocal testi* 
tnony of Mr. Madison, who drew the Virginia Resolutions him- 
pelf? Who stood at the head of the Virginia Legislature, when 
they were considered, and directed, so far as one man could 
direct in such an enlightened body as that Legislature was, the 
whole operations, whilst they were under consideration. Th© 
following are entire paragraphs extracted from his own letter, 
recently written on that subject 

MR. MADISON'S LETTER. 

"That the Legislature could not have intended to sanction; 
"such a doctrine is to be inferred from the debates in the House 
" of Delegates, and from the address of the two Houses to their 
£' constituents, on the subject of the resolutions. The tenor of 
4i the debates, which were ably conducted^ and are understood 
-* to have been revised for the press by most, if not all, of th& 
" speakers, discloses no reference whatever, to a constitutional 
"right in an individual State, to arrest, by force, the operation 
" of a law of the United States. Concert among the States for 
" redress against the Alien and Sedition Laws, as acts of usurped 
" power, was a leading sentiment; and the attainment of a 
" concert, the immediate object of the course adopted by the 
Ji Legislature, which was that of inviting the other States " to 
"concur in declaring the acts to be unconstitutional, and to 
** co-operate in the necessary and proper measures in maintaining 
" unimnaire 1. the authoritie.s, rimt& a-ud iiherrjLiH reserved j'o 



3S 

1 the States respectively, audio the People." That, by the neces- 
1 sary and proper measures to be concurrently and co-opera- 
' tively taken, were meant measures known to trie Constiiutiqn, 
'particularly the ordinary control of the people and Legisla- 
' tures of the States over the Government of the United States, 
'cannot be doubted; and the intei position, of this control, as 
' the event showed, was equal to the occasion." 

"The published address of the Legislature to the People, 
'their constituents, affords another conclusive evidence of its 
' views. The Address warns them against the encroaching 
' spirit of the General Government, argues the unconstitutionali- 
' ty of the Alien and Sedition Acts, points to other instances in 
' which the constitutional limits had been overleaped; dwells 
'upon the dangerous mode of deriving power by implication; 
' and in general presses the necessity of watching over the 
' consolidating tendency of the Federal policy. But nothing 
' is said that can be understood to look to means in maintaining 
'the rights of the States, beyond the regular ones within the 
' forms of the Constitution." — See Mr. Madison's letter in the 
Banner of the Constitution, Oct. 20th, 1830. 

The positive testimony of this illustrious Statesman will out- 
weigh the conjectures of any men, be their standing what it may; 
and here I might leave this question, were it not that the two 
last of the Virginia Resolutions, are of themselves, a complete 
developement of the views given by Mr. Madison in this letter; 
whieh was an appeal to the other States for their co-operation 
in a constitutional form, against the free construction and im- 
plied powers. The very doctrines which have been cherished, 
and that to an extreme degree, by all the great leaders of the 
South Carolina Nullifiers, until the very evils, of which they 
so loudly complain, were brought down, upon us by that very 
doctrine, and with whom those identical Virginia Resolutions, 
have been a sport and a by word. 

These are the Resolutions; they will speak for themselves; 
and will, upon the severest criticism, sustain, to the fullest ex- 
tent, the same views given by Mr. Madison in his letter. 

That the good people of this Commonwealth, having ever 
felt and continuing to feel the most sincere affection for their 
brethren of the other States; the truest anxiety for establishing 
and -perpetuating the Union of all; and the most scruvulous 
fidelity to that Constitution, which is the pledge of mutual 
friendship, and the instrument of mutual happiness; the Gene- 
ral Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions in 
the other States, in confidence that they will concur with this 
Commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, thai the 
acts aforesaid are unconstitutional; and, that the necessary 
dud proper measures will be taken by each, for co operating 



with this State, in maintaining •, unimpaired^ the authorities, 
rights, and liberties reserved in the States respectively, or to 
the People. 

That the Governor be desired to transmit a copy of the fore- 
going resolutions to the Executive authority of each of the 
other States, with a request that the same may be communica- 
ted to the Legislature thereof; and that a copy be furnished to- 
each of the Senators and Representatives, representing this 
State in the Congress of the United Stasie. — [See the Report of 
tlie Virginia House of Delegates, pages 61 — 2. 

I will now, my fellow citizens, turn your attention to the 
Kentucky Resolutions, which were drawn by Mr. Jefferson, 
and which have been used in like manner with the Virginia Re- 
solutions, to bolster up Nullification: And Mr. Jefferson him- 
self, through that medium, has been made a Nullifier, of no 
ordinary character. 

Mr. Jefferson is gone from us. He is in the silent tomb. Ho 
Is not here to speak for himself as Mr. Madison has done. But 
he has left that kind of testimony which is equally irresistable. 
He has left his numerous letters, revised by himself in his last 
days, whilst his mind was yet in its vigor, and ordered by him- 
self to be published. I have those letters before me, and they 
are full upor this subject; and explicitly show that his object in 
drafting the Kentucky Resolutions was not Nullification, but to 
bring the public mind to bear on the subject, preparatory to a 
constitutional opposition. These letters, some written imme- 
diately before he drew the Kentucky Resolutions, some imme- 
diately after, all breathe a sacred devotion to the Union. 

The Kentucky Resolutions were brought before the Legisla- 
ture of that State on the ICth of November, 1798, and must 
have been written by Mr. Jefferson in the course of the pre- 
ceding summer. The first letter of his to which I will call your 
attention is a letter to John Taylor, a distinguished Republi- 
can of the Virginia school. The following are extracts from it. 
"THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN TAYLOR." 

"PlIIXADELPHIA, JuNE 1, 1798.' 

"It is true that we are completely under the saddle of Mas- 
<i sachnsetts and Connecticut, and that they ride very hard. 
'* cruelly insulting our feelings, as well as exhausting our strength 
"and subsistence. But if on a temporary superiority of the one, 
* 4 party, the other is to resort to a scision of the Union, no 
** federal government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the 
-'present rule of Massachusetts and Connecticut, we break the 
" Union, will the evil stop there? Suppose the New England 
" States alone cut off, will our natures be changed? Are we not. 
*' men still to the South of that, and w ith all the passions of 
* men? Immediately, we shall see, a Pennsylvania and aYrrfftfljfc 



40 

"party arise in the residuary confederacy, and the public mind 
"will be distracted with the same party spirit. What a game 
" too will the one party have in their hands, by eternally threa- 
" tening the other that unless they do so and so, they will join 
" their Northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, immediately the conflict will be 
"established between the representatives of these two States, 
"and they will end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, 
"therefore, that an association of men who will not quarrel 
" with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the 
"greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting 
" or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel 
" with, I had rather keep our New England associates for 
" that purpose, than to see our bickerings transferred to others." 
See Works of Jefferson, vol. 3, pages 393 — 4. 

The Virginia Resolutions had been transmitted to all the other 
States, early in 1799, and were rejected by seven, and not 
noticed by the others. Among the latter was South Carolina. 
On the 5th of September thereafter, Mr. Jefferson wrote a let- 
ter to W. C. Nicholas, his distinguished friend, and associate 
in the Kentucky Resolutions, and among other things, as re- 
garded the rejection and neglect of the Virginia Resolutions, 
by the other States, to avoid an inference of acquiescence, he 
proposed a declaration should made, answering such States as 
had given their reasons against them, and take some notice of 
such States as had not replied. And expressing in affectionate 
and conciliatory language their warm attachment to the Union, 
and that they were not at all disposed to make every measure of 
error or ivrong a cause of scission, and concluded by saying, 
"we should never think of separation but for repeated and enor- 
mous violations." — See Works of Jefferson, 3 vol. pages 428 — 9. 

It was not known for a length of time who the author of the 
Kentucky Resolutions really was. Mr. Jefferson in a letter of 
the 11th December, 1821, to Mr. Nicholas, son of Mr. 
W. C. Nicholas, discloses himself to be the author, and the mo- 
tives which induced him to draw the Resolutions. He says to 
Mr. Nicholas: 

" At the time when the republicans of our country were so 
■« m uch alarmed at the proceedings of the federal ascendancy in 
s ' Congress, in the executive and in the judiciary departments, 
" it became a matter of serious consideration how head could 
«' be made against their enterprises on the constitution. The 
" leading republicans in Congress found themselves of no use 
" there, brow-beaten, as they were, by a bold and overwhelm- 
" in" - majority. They concluded to retire from that field, take 
•' a stand in the State Legislatures, and endeavor there to ar- 
mrest 'their progress. The Alien and Sedition laws furnished 



41 

" the particular occasion. The sympathy between Virginia and 
"Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately confidential, 
" than between any other two Stales of republican policy. Mr. 
" Madison came into the Virginia legislature. I was then in 
" the Vice-Presidency, and could not leave my station. But 
"your father, Col. W. C. Nicholas, and myself happening to be 
"together, the engaging the co-operation of Kentucky in an 
" energetia protestation against the constitutionality of those 
"laws, became a subject of consultation. Those gentlemen 
" pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions for that purpose, 
"your father undertaking to introduce then, to that legislature, 
" with a solemn assurance, which 1 strietj'y required, that it 
" should not be known from what quarter they came. I drew 
" and delivered them to him, and in keeping their origin secret, 
" he fulfilled his pledge of honor." — [See Works of Jeffer- 
son, vol. 4, page 344. 

In this letter the object is disclosed by Mr. Jefferson himself. 
The whole machinery is developed. Every thing is in the plu- 
ral number: The leading republican^ in Congress; not the 
leading republicans in Kentucky; concluded to retire from that 
field, take a stand in the State Legislatures; not in the legisla- 
ture of Kentucky; which would have been the field, if nullifica- 
tion had been intended. Col. W. C. Nicholas and myself hap- 
pening to be together, the engaging the co-operation of 
Kentucky in an energetic protestation against the constitution- 
ality oj the alien and sedition laws, became a subject of consul- 
tation. A mere expedient of bringing the subject before the 
public. Not one word about Nullification. No threatenings 
that if these laws, were not repealed by Congress, that the State 
of Kentucky wouid, upon her reserved sovereignty, repeal them 
herself, by a law of her own legislature. 

The radical error into which the milliners have fallen is de- 
rived from their hasty adoption of here and there a garbled sen- 
tence, or half sentence of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolu- 
tions, without examining the whole subject; and regarding the 
arguments instead af the conclusions. And upon the six con- 
cluding lines of the first of the Kentucky Resolutions, part of a 
sentence only, they have built the whole fabric of Nullification. 
Erroneously supposing Mr. Jefferson intended to draw the same 
conclusions which they have drawn. The following are the 
lines alluded to: 

That the Government, created by this compact, was not 7nade 
the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers dele- 
gated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and 
not the constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in 
all oiner cases of compact among parties^ having no com won 



42 

judge, each party has a Tight to judge for itself. — [See first' 
Kentucky Resolution. 

Taking the eighth Kentucky Resolution entire, and some of 
the hitter sentences of the ninth, they totally destroy any such 
conclusion; and show, beyond a possibility of doubt, that Mr. 
Jefferson's object was solely to enlist the public sentiment, and 
induce the legislatures to bring the subject before Congress, 
and finally to bring about a repeal of those laws by Congress. 
The eighth Resolution says: 

Resolved, That the preceding Resolutions be transmitted 
to the Senators and Representatives in Congress from this 
Commonwealth, who are hereby enjoined to present the same to 
their respective Houses, and to use their best endeavors to pro- 
cure at the next session of Congress, a repeal of the aforesaid 
■it m '-constitutional and obnoxious acts. —[See eighth Kentucky 
Resolution. 

The concluding sentences of the ninth and last Resolution, 
call upon the Co-States to declare whether the Alien and Sedi- 
tion acts arc, or arc not authorised by the Federal Compact, and 
to unite with the Commonwealth of Kentucky in requesting 
their repeal at the next session of Congress. The following are 
extracts from that Resolution: 

That this Commonwealth does, therefore, call on the Co-States 
for an expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning 
aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein-before 
specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are, or are not 
authorised by the Federal Compact? and that the Co-States re- 
curring to their natural right in cases not made federal, will 
concur in declaring these acts void and of no force, and wiU 
each unite with this Commonwealth in requesting their repeal 
at the next session of Congress. — [See ninth Kentucky Reso- 
lution. 

But Mr. Jefferson has put this subject to rest, in a letter 
of the 5th of June, 1824, written to Major John Cartwright, 
a foreigner, who sought information of the fundamental princi- 
ples of our constitution. Mr. Jefferson in that letter says: 

" With respect to our State and Federal Governments. I da 
f* not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. 
'* The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the 
" same government: neither having control over the other, but 
*' within its own department. But, you may ask, if the two 
** departments should claim each the same subject of power, 
*' where is the common umpire to decide ultimately between 
" them? In cases of little importance or energy, the prudence 
" of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable 
%i ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor compromised, a 
"convention of the States must be called, to ascribe the doubt-- 



43 

"ful powers to Ifhatf der ! which ' think best. 

"You will perceive by th . that We have no 

"far perfected our constitutions as to venture to make them 

"unchangeable. But still, in their pres . 

" them not otherwise changeable than b; . :' 

"people, on a spi cial election 

"pose expressly: they arc, until thi n, : . .".. '\;-\ , 

Works of Jcffcrsoji, vol. 4, pftgt 

What elections' does Mr. Jeff) >ri allude to? Certainly to 
the elections authorised by the fifth article of thi 
There was no other to which he Could allude He says, "they 
are, until then, the lex legusi. The strongest m . , , i m he 
could possibly have used. Which trans! leans, Tl 

of laws, or the fundamental law of the Union, which no power, 
short of that given by the constitution itself, could alter or 
amend* 

In his letter of the 26th Decern 7 ■ "o, to Governor Gil 
of Virginia, after speaking in the most emphatic and eloquent 
strain against the Tariff and Internal Improvement systems, as 
well as. against those who supported those systems, with whom, 
he says, "yon mi^ht as well reason and argue with the marble 
columns encircling them. After which, he makes the following 
remarks on the subject of sep; f ting the Uni 

If every infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be 
resisted at once, as a dissolution of it, none can ever be formed 
which would last one year. We must have patience and longer 
endurance then with cur brethren while under delusion; give 
them time for reflection and experience of consequences; keep 
ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and 
■separate from our companions only when the sole alternati 
are the dissolution of our Union with 'hem, or submission to a 
government without limitation of powers. Between those two 
evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no hesitation'. 

In all these letters of Mr. Jefferson, although written in the 
bitterness of his soul against the free construction and implied 
power doctrine, there is not a sentence, no, not a syllable, that 
Wears the most distant aspect of Nullification. 

If nullification had been his object, would Mr. Jcherson have 
told us at one time, " Better keep together as we are:" At anoth- 
er time, " We should never think of separation but for repeated 
"and enormous violations." And at a third time, "Separate 
"from our companions only when the sole alternatives \c^t, are 
"the dissolution of the Union with them, or submission to ;t 
" government without limitation of powers." Why should Mr. 
Jefferson so repeatedly and so ardently admonish us against a 
dissolution of the Union, if Nullification was his object? 
:. Why did the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky order 



44 

copies of their respective Resolutions to be transmitted to each 

of their own Senators and Representatives in Congress, and 
also to each of the Governors of the other States, to be laid be- 
fore their respective legislatures, for their consideration, if Nul* 
Jification was all they sought? 

And why did the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions them- 
selves call on all the other States of the Union, not only for their 
dissent to the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition laws, 
but also call on those States to " unite with them in requesting 
" their repeal at the next session of Congress," if the nullifying 
process could have been interposed by the legislature, of either 
Virginia or Kentucky? 

Virginia accordingly transmitted her Resolutions to all the 
ether States of the Union; several of which returned their pro- 
tests, and others so little regarded them, that they were permit- 
ted to slumber unnoticed, or were thrown into some corner, 
with the rubbish, to moulder and become food for worms. See- 
ing the stand she had taken, repelled by some of her Co-States, 
and totally neglected by others, and rejected by Congress, her 
legislature at their next session, with great independence, pro- 
found dignity, distinguished abilities, and with perfect respect 
and courtesy towards the States which had protested against 
their resolutions, offered to the world a masterly vindication; 
drawn by Mr Madison himself, without an intimation of nulli* 
fying those laics by the reserved rights of the State: and con- 
cluded that vindication by a renewed protest, on their own part, 
against 4i the Alien and Sedition acts," in the following words; 

Resolved, That the General Assembly, having carefully and 
4 ' respectfully attended to the proceedings of a number of the 
" States, in answer to their resolutions of December 21, 1708, 
44 and having accurately and fuiiy re-examined and re-consider- 
" ed the latter, find it to be their indispensable duty to adhere to 
* ; the same, as founded in truth, as consonant with the Consti- 
* % tution, and as conducive to its preservation; and more espe- 
" cially to be their duty to renew, as they do hereby renew, 
44 their protest against " the Alien and Sedition acts," as palpa- 
" ble and alarming infractions of the Constitution." — [See ike 
Report of ilie Committee fyc. page 65. 

Can we look at the circ umspect, frank, high minded, indepen- 
dent course which has characterized at all times, the Virginia 
politicians, and perhaps at no time more than when those reso- 
lutions were before the Virginia Legislature, and suppose for a 
moment that Virginia would recoil from her purpose when she 
had once taken her stand, and take refuge under a second pro- 
test? It is impossible! Virginia has at no time given evidence 
©f such political imbecility. Virginia valued the principles 
•••-. the Constitution too much to snort with them. Besides, >she 



had greater resources, at that time, than any State in the Union. 
Under all these circumstances she permitted the odious Sedi- 
tion lav*' to continue in operation until it expired by its own li- 
mitation. In the mean while, Callender was tried in the Capitol, 
in the city of Richmond; was convicted of sedition, sentenced, 
and punished, under that Sedition law, in the face of the State 
of Virginia, and of her legislature. And all this took place af- 
ter the adoption of the Virginia Resolutions by her Legislature. 
Yet we hare never heard a whisper that that, distinguished State 
ever dreamed of nullifying or repealing that law, by an act of 
the Virginia Legislature. Notwithstanding we arc told the Vir- 
giniaand Kentucky Resolutions affirmed, in totidem verbis, what 
{South Carolina means by Nullification. 

The political course of Virginia has, perhaps, been as firrri, 
uniform and unwavering as that of any other State in the Union. 
Virginia has been a bulwark to this confederacy, in all great 
national, and particularly in all constitutional questions. And 
her politicians are now alive to the subject; and I will hazard 
an assertion, that there is not one politician, or man of sense 
in that great State, who has reflected on this question, who will 
say: 

That a single State can, by virtue of its reserved sovereignty, 
constitutionally declare, by an act of its own State legislature, 
a law of Congress unconstitutional; and arrest the entire opera- 
tion of that law by virtue of that reserved sovereignty, and still 
remain a member of the Union, peacefully and constitutionally 
enjoying all its privileges and immunities. 

Fellow-citizens — I am aware that I have spun out this proof 
to a ""ery considerable length. But as the peace and quiet of 
the State, if not the safety of the Union, may depend on this 
single question; whether the Kentucky and Virginia Resolu- 
tions were intended to maintain the doctrine, that a single State 
had the power to control the Union, by arresting at pleasure 
any of its laws, or were only intended to produce a co-opera- 
tion of the States in a constitutional and energetic opposition 
to what were deemed unconstitutional laws, and to procure 
their joint efforts in an application to Congress, for the repeal 
of those laws; I have, therefore, taken more of your time than I 
should otherwise have ventured to do. And I trust the mass 
of testimony I have brought before you, will conclusively prove 
** that tho Carolina doctrines" arc not the true version of the 
Virginia Resolutions. 

But if South Carolina Nullification can be maintained up- 
on sound principle, why bring to its aid the Virginia and K 
tucky Resolutions? It Ought to bo maintained on principle-, if 
it. can be maintained at all. If it cannot, who is there 
enough to'sav it ought to be maintained without principle? 



Chancellor Harper, in one of his public speeches, has laid 
down the doctrine of Nullification distinctly, according to his 
own views, in the following paragraph. In which he says: 

"I will not affect to disguise ray own opinions, though abler 
*' men may differ from me, that if all other efferts fail, the sove- 
"Ireign power of the State ought to interfere, for the purpose 
" of arresting the operation of the unconstitutional laws of 
" which we complain; thus compelling the general government 
" to abandon its oppressive policy, or to apply to a convention 
" of the States for the purpose of obtaining, by a vote of three- 
" fourths, an express grant, of the power which it claims. I be- 
" lieve this course to be necessary; I believe it to be constitw- 
" tional, and that the State may adopt it without relinquishing 
" her character as a member of the Union; I believe it to be 
" safe and peaceful." — [See his Speech at Columbia* 2Qth Sep- 
tember, 1830. 

That a State ean by its sovereign power, constitutionally ar- 
rest a law of the general government, and still remain in the 
Union, without relinquishing her character as a member, and 
that such a course is safe and peaceful, is. to me, incomprehensi- 
ble. It is one of those operations which the ancients would 
have ranked with the occult sciences. Agrippa would have 
given it a place in his books of occult philosophy, as one of the 
wild dreams of imagination 

Chancellor Harper has given to this diction no illustration. 
He does rot inform us how the force is to be applied, or what 
that force is, by which the State can compel the General Gov- 
ernment to abandon its oppressive policy, or to call a co'nven* 
tion. He cannot expect the State to say to the General Govern- 
ment, as Joshua did to the sun, "stand thou still," and that the 
General Government will instantly obey the " high behest." 
When a statesman speaks of a State compelling the General 
Government to abandon her policy, we expect him to shew the 
agency by which the compulsion can be enforced. Our nullify- 
ing statesmen, and this gentleman has avowed himself a de- 
voted advocate of that doctrine, speak of compelling the Gene- 
ral Government to any measure they please, with as much fa- 
miliarity and as mubh certainty, as a mechanic would speak cf 
stopping the motion of a watch or clock, by removing its pro- 
pelling power. Or that by sounding the tocsin of Nullification, 
the General Government would as promptly obey the signal, as 
the engineer of a steam boat would lake ofF the steam or un- 
ship the wheels, to stop the motion of his boat, whenever the 
pilot should ring his bell as a signal for him to do so. 

Chancellor Harper knows perfectly well that there is but one 
constitutional mode of calling a convention- And thai; model's 



47 

distinctly 1 expressed iu t!ie constitution itself. Ir. is in the fol- 
lowing words: 

"The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall 
*' deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitu- 
" tion, or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of 
" the several States, shall call a convention'^ for proposing- 
* c amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents 
41 and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the* 
Cl legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by con* 
s* ventionsin three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode 
*' of ratification may be proposed by the Congress." — [See his 
public speech at Columbia, 20th September, 1830. 

There are no other words in the constitution respecting a con- 
vention. And this constitutional provision, so far from compel- 
ling Congress to call a convention, expressly sa}\s, it must be 
" on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the se- 
veral States." Not "on the application" of one State. Not, 
on the mandate of one State. Not on the mandate of even two- 
thirds of all the States. Where, then, is the compulsory power 
•over the General Government, for calling a convention, found? 
It is found in the declamatory speeches of the nullifying ora- 
tors; and in the tracts and pamphlets which they write and cir- 
culate amongst the honest citizens, whom they hope to proselyte 
to their newly fabricated doctrines. 

Chancellor Harper is too well read in constitutional law, to 
say it is found in the constitution itself. If it is not found 
there, it is found only where I have placed it. "Whatever that 
gentleman may have said, or thought under great excitement, 
and a fertile and heated imagination, he has too much sound dis- 
cretion, and too much moral and political virtue, to assert upon 
cool reflection, that if the legislature of South Carolina should 
enact a law, declaring the tariff laws of the United States null 
and void within her limits, and go on to arrest the operation of 
those laws, that it is not revolutionrry, and if persevered in, 
must inevitably produce a war between the two governments, 
or a secession of the State from the Union. 

The following extracts are from the speech of Governor 
Hamilton, on the last 4th of July in Charleston, on the subject 
of Nullification: He says it is: 

" A peaceful and effectual mode of resisting within the limits 
*' of a State in this confederacy, an act of usurpation on the part of 
*? the General Government," And then remarks: " In one 
*' word, fellow-citizens, I believe, without the power of sovereign 
4i interposition on the part of a State in this confederacy, thro* 
* 4 the ordinary functions of its judicature, which is Nullification, 
" we are utterly destitute of all peaceful mean? for the protec- 
"Hion.af our reserved-rig.hts/' In a third Dlace he says: !< We 



" have what the confederacies of antiquity wanted, State Legis- 
" latures of acknowledged authority and influence, the deposito- 
ries of residuary masses of sovereignty, not delegated, and 
•* competent to the protection of their citizens by no other force 
*' than the great and inestimable right of a trial by jury." — ]Sce 
Charleston Mercury, July 12, 1831. 

The mode of applying the sovereign power of the State, 
pointed out by Governor Hamilton, is through the trial by jury. 
We all yield our assent to the inestimable value of this mode of* 
trial, in all cases proper for its exercise. The Governor speaks 
of the peaceful and effectual mode of resisting an act of oppres- 
sion, by this mode of trial. He has not adverted to its contin- 
gences, the mode in which a jury is brought together, and the 
doubtful results that always await its issues. Nor has he told 
us on what subjects it is to operate. But we presume he means 
the trials of suits on the "Revenue Bonds. It is not a matter 
of course that the importing merchants will refuse to pay their 
bonds. The probability is that they will not refuse. But if 
they should, what certainty is there that the juries will find ver- 
dicts against those bonds? There is none. Ycu may have a 
jury at twelve o'clock that will find a verdict for the. merchant, 
against the bond. You may have another jury at one o'clock, 
on the same day, that will find a verdict for the United States, 
in support of the bond. The jurors in all courts, are changed 
every hour of the day. I put out of the question the contin- 
gences of special pleading, and the legal absurdity of pleading 
nan est factum to a revenue bond, to bring the consideration 
upon which the bond Was given before the court; and I lay aside 
every other contingency attendant on the trial by jury, and ask 
this question of an enlightened community: In a government 
like this, with a population of 12,000,000 of people, and grow- 
ing beyond all calculation: 

Is it fit that twelve men, no matter how respectable, picked 
up in the streets of Charleston, or brought from their counting 1 
houses or shops, or from the dinner table, without a moment's 
reflection or the least information on the subject, except what 
they obtain in the mkkt of an animated debate, in the court 
house, should be the sole abiters in settling a great constitutional 
principle that shall gevern a great Republic for ages to come? 
Or are the free men of South Carolina, however they may ad- 
mire the trial by jury within the proper sphere of its action, 
prepared to deliver into the hands of any twelve men, of any 
party, the power that shall mark the boundaries of their consti- 
tutional rights? And we are gravely told by that gentleman, 
that this is * Nullification " and the "peaceiul means for the 
protection of our reserved rights." I take the liberty, respect- 
fully to dissent from f h?t opinion- and to sayr, it must im^'it'?- 



49 

Uy lead to a serious controversy with the General Government 
unci to a speedy dissolution ot the Union; or to what would be 
to us more disastrous, if possible, the humiliating condition of 
retracing our steps. I will endeavor to prove this from autho- 
rity. '1 he revenue law, says: 

No person, whose bond has been received cither as principal 
or surety for the payment of duties, or for whom any bond has 
been given by an agent, factor, or other person, which bond 
may be due and unsatisfied, shall be allowed a future credit for 
duties until such bond be paid or discharged. — See act of Con- 
gress, 2d March, 1799, Sec. 2. 

Those merchants then, according to this positive law, are 
not entitled to any further credit for duties. Of course the trial 
by jury is at an end, as regards them; and they must then, 
either pay the duties, at the Custom House, before they can 
laud their goods; or sutler them to be seized by the Custom 
House officers; or force a landing in defiance of all law. If 
tney pay tne duties, they gain n thing by their former verdicts; 
if they suffer them to be seized, then their struggles terminate 
with the total loss of their goods, for attempting to elude the 
revenue laws; and in either case the General Government is still 
in the receipt of the full revenue. Bui if they should choose 
the third alternative, to force a landing, then the contest with 
the General Government must begin. But when it will end is 
beyond my comprehension. It is the duty of the President to 
see the law executed. The Constitution of the United States 
says: 

" The President shall take care that the laws be faithfully exe- 
cute 1.7 — See Constitution United Suites, Art. II, Sec. III. 

In pursuance of this positive injunction of the Constitution, 
the President takes a solemn ath, upon the Holy Evangelists 
of Almighty God, that he will see the laws faithfully executed. 
And it would be a vain hope to suppose that President Jackson 
will shrink from a duty, that he has taken a solemn oath to per- 
form. If he <loes not shrink from that duty, and the people of 
South Carolina sh ulcl refuse to retrace their steps, what can 
possibly prevent a civil war? Nothing. It is as certain as any 
other event in human affairs. It is said President Jackson will 
not send an army here to enforce the laws. General Washington 
sent an army in 1791 against the insurgents in the interior of 
Pennsylvania, who opposed Mr. Nevill, the excise officer, in. 
the execution of his office, because they were opposed to the 
duty on whiskey. And that army suppressed the insurgents. 
Precisely a case with the present, except that the subject matter 
is a little diiferent, and but very little. General Jackson is not 
less decisive in his character than General Washington was. 



so 

Then what hope from that .source? None. And what hope have 
wejfrom the Nullifiers? None: provided they can augment their 
party to a sufficient extent: which they are using every possible 
means to do, without regard to the means employed. 

Add^to this doctrine, so strongly inculcated, that each State 
Can constitutionally arrest any law of Congress by its reserved 
sovereignty, and do so, and still remain a member of the Union, 
and all this is sate and peaceful. With this gigantic power in 
the hands of each State, could any law exist longer than just to 
see the light, before it would find itself in the iron grasp of 
some one or other of the twenty four States. 

Could any thing be imagined more incompatible with the 
principles of a confederated government, than to admit that a 
single State*can ■■bandy the General Government about like a 
foot ball? And that whenever a single State may deem it fit to 
do so, she can place this whole Union, under the Ban of a petit 
jury? Could any course be devised better calculated to prostrate 
the General Government, dissolve the Union, and give place to 
Anarchy of the most wild and profligate character? Could we 
even wish such a desolating control to exist whilst we call it 
our government? 

The fame of this government has spread itself far and wide- 
Its beauties as a system of rational liberty have reached the ut- 
most verge of the civilized world; and even the savages are 
changing their very natures through iis influence. The Despo- 
tisms of the old world arc falling before it. The Republics that 
are daily springing up through its influence, are erecting their 
governments upon its models. The princes and potentates of 
Europe are imperceptibly drawn into its vortex. The two 
splendid monarchs who now wield the sceptres of England and 
France, have, each of them, personally visited our Republic 
since^the adoption of the present Constitution. They have 
carried home the principles they imbibed, and are dispensing 
them with*a liberal ^hand to their oppressed subjects. They 
have more than half republicanized their kingdoms. They 
have carried thosejprinciples upon their thrones, and they are 
destined to form the brightest jewels in their diadems. Even 
the Turbaned /Turk has sent his wise men here, to gaze upon a 
government that has dazzled the world, to see what they could 
carry hence that might profit his pagan followers. 

Shall we be the first to apply the torch, and demolish in an 
instant, the most splendid political fabric that the human mind 
ever erected, that we may obtain a " niche in the temple of 
fame?" Like Erostratus who burnt the splendid temple of Diana 
at Ephesus, without any other motive than the desire of trans- 
mitting his name^to future ages? And because we will not do so., 



51 

without waiting a moment to try such fair constitutional mean's 
as we beiievc we have in our power, we nre branded by the 
leaders of the Nullification party in their declamations, their 
tracts, and their pamphlets, as the worst enemii s of our coun- 
try, and friends to the TarifT; apparently for no other purpose 
than to bring an odium upon such as expose their dangerous 
policy. 

Nullification assumes a new character and a new remedy ac- 
cording to the orator who declaims. Chancellor Harper leave 
the remedy to the native powers of the Constitution, which it, 
to heal itself, like a broken leg or broken arm; by what physi- 
cians call "the first intention." Governor Hamilton tells us 
we are to find an effectual protection in the verdict of a jun . 
And although their remedies are totally different, each of those 
Statesmen says, his remedy is perfectly constitutional, safe 
and peaceful. But Mr. M'Duffie, in his late dinner speech, 
comes to the point at once. He denies Nullification to be a 
constitutional power. He says: 

"I will readily concede that a State cannot nullify an act of 
"Congress, by virtue of any power derived from the Constitu- 
" tion. It would be a perfect solecism to suppose any such 
" power was conferred by the Constitution- This right flows 
"from a higher source. All that I claim for the State in this 
"respect, necessarily results from the mere fact of Sovereign- 
ity-" — See Charleston Mercury, May 25th, 1831. 

This is plain dealing. It is telling you at once that Revo- 
lution or Secession is the only alternative. What else can he 
mean by "the mere fact of sovereignty." Nothing. It admits 
of no other solution. And he is right, if your object is resis- 
tance. There is no middle ground. To say you can resist the 
General Government, and remain in the Union, and be at peace, 
is a perfect delusion. Calculated only to hood wink an honest 
community, until they shall have advanced too far to retrace 
their steps; which they must do, and do with disgrace and hu- 
miliation, or enter upon a bloody conflict with the General 
Government. For the General Government cannot bow its 
sovereignty to the mandates of South Carolina, whilst the 
Union is worth preserving. And be assured it will not bow to 
the mandate of any State, whilst the Sovereign people believe 
that a confederated government is calculated to promote their 
peace, their honor, and their safety. 

' We are asked if majorities are always to rule when the laws 
.they enact are unconstitutional? I have no hesitation in an* 
sw r ering that majorities are not to rule to that extent. That our 
government is not a government of laws. But governed by 
fundamental and prescribed principles, laid down in a Consti. 
iution. And when those principles are violated, the minority 



52 

whose rights, when ascertained, are as sacred as the rights oi' 
the majority, must choose between remonstrance and Revolu- 
tion. No other course has been admitted by any writer on 
government, from the dawn of civilization until it was divulged 
by Governor Hamilton in his oral address to his constituents at 
Colleton, on the 28th of October, 1828j or by Mr. Calhoun, in 
his written Exposition to the Legislature, in the month foi- 
lowing. Which of them is entitled to the palm for this disco- 
very I know not. The sublime thought seems to have been 
conceived by both, about the same time. 

As an appendage to Nullification, and as a means of carrying 
it more effectually into operation, they have established in 
Charleston a grand political Club, and are forming correspon- 
dent Clubs throughout the State. Their Resolution for that 
purpose, says: 

"Resolved, That this party will proceed to establish a State 
"Rights and Free Trade Association — the annual contribution 
" to which, of each member, shall not exceed One Dollar and 
"a Half — and it shall be the duty of the General Committee to 
''prepare and report to an adjourned meeting of the party, pro- 
*' per rules for the government of such an association. That 
" the said Committee shall also correspond with the friends of 
" State Rights and Free Trade, in other parts of the State, and 
"of the United States, for the purpose of procuring their co- 
-operation in the formation of similar Associations.]* 

Their object cannot be doubted. It must be to enlist recruits 
for the party. Young men, honorable, high minded young 
men, full of the vigor of youth, a d untutored in the arts of po- 
liticians, are easily fascinated. And once they subscribe the 
constitution and pay the dollar and a half, they are enlisted, 
and must obey. There will be no looking back. 

We cannot look upon such an association without believing 
it to be the germ of a Revolution. And especially as it is the 
offspring of Nullification; and however laudable the intentions 
in forming these clubs, they are quite in character with the 
Jacobin clubs which existed in France during the French 
Revolution. That Revolution was commenced in a spirit of 
great moderation by. General La Fayette, and had not that pa- 
triot of the world been intercepted in his march of civil liberty, 
his efforts would have been crowned with success, and revolu- 
tionary France might have been free. But the ambitious aspi- 
rants to power, through the medium of those Jacobin societies, 
by the very means and under the same semblance of public good 
now held out , soon brought the monster Robespierre into power, 
who let loose his vengeance upon every distinguished patriot 
that stood in his way; and the guillotine and the scaffold were 



53 

moistened with human blood, until the horrible monster fell a 
sacrifice to the instruments he hud invented to pave his way to 
empire. Those clubs, in their origin as meek and as patriotic 
as those now forming in South Carolina purport to be, gave 
the great impulse to a twenty years war, that laid waste all Eu- 
rope, and placed a despot upon the throne of France, 

The streets of Paris were made to stream with the blood of 
the unfortunate inebs that had assembled under their inilucnce. 
The remorseless butcheries of human beings that pervaded the 
nntion, were never surpassed in the wilds of Africa; and the plains 
of Europe were drenched with human gore, and whitened with 
human bones. And to close these horrid scenes, upon return- 
ing peace, these bones were raked up, prepared, and sent as mer- 
chandize to foreign markets, and sold as manure, to enrich other 
soils that had escaped such horrors. 

Whosoever will read the "History of the Times," published 
whilst those scenes were accomplishing, will find what I have 
said to be but a faint picture. The same causes produce the 
same effects almcst in all countries and all ages. If this be 
true, what may we not expect from the clubs now forming among 
ourselves? They have not yet shed any blood, but they have 
produced invincible animosities, and a total proscription from 
ail offices, except among the nulliiiers. Offices give power, and 
power once grasped by a political party, may lead to as much 
despotism, and the same horrors that have scourged other 
countries, in other times. Foreign wars are the curse of nations, 
but civil wars bring in their train horrors that shock humanity. 

It is at this picture I start back when I oppose Nullification; 
which may prostrate my country and bury me beneath its ru- 
ins. It is not a little tariff upon sugar, to which it is ascribed, 
by some ignoble creatures of party, ivhose souls are too grov- 
elling to appreciate the Union of thi;& happy country above the 
paltry gains of a little money. There is no act of my life that 
would, with honest men, subject me to such an imputation. 
Money is " trash; and has been slave to thousands," and for 
which I have not more than a common regard. But my coun~ 
try "is the immediate jewel of my soul." 

Had I been disposed to sell my country, I could have had a. 
better price than the petty gains of ihe tariff upon a little sugar. 
I could have had the support of thone who would have re-elect- 
ed me to the Senate of the United Slates. I hold sundry letters 
direct :sr>on that subject; that if I would only go for Nullifica- 
tion, I should have no opposition for that office, and by persons 
who knew I owned a sugar plantation. Besides these, I had 
sundry declarations from others. My reply was, that I could 
not, nor would not make the sacrifice; and these very men set 



54 

themselve against me. Statesmen do not sell their country for 
money, as Judas Iscariot sold his lord and master. Statesmen 
who sell their country sell for high offices of honor. For which 
there are not a few in the market. 

Should I be asked if I am willing to submit to the tariff, I 
will reply, that the tariff is going down by the very means I 
pointed out in my address last autumn. If I should be mista- 
ken, I will then adopt the language of Mr. Jefferson, so beauti- 
fully expressed in his letter to the late Governor Giles, of Vir- 
gina, in the following words: 

" We must have patience and longer endurance then with our 
• { brethren while under delusion; give them time for reflection 
41 and experience of consequences; keep ourselves in a situa- 
44 tion to profit by the chapter of accidents; and separate from 
" our companions only when the sole alternatives left, are the 
44 dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a gov- 
" eminent without limitation of powers. Between these two 
*' evils, when we must make a .choice, there can be no hesita- 
" tion." 



There are a few typographical errors in this pamphlet; none, 
however, we believe, but such as will be readily corrected by the 
intelligent reader. One or two mistakes, however, may as well 
be noted. 

In the 5th line from the commencement, read " I came for 
that purpose," instead of " / am $c." 

In the 5th line from the bottom of the 7th page, read " perse- 
vered" for "preserved." 

The publication of the speech has been delayed by causes 
not within the control of the parties to them, and not necessary to 
be repeated here. It is sufficient that we exonerate Judge Smith 
from a participation in them. We know the delay to have been 
the cause of as much regret to that gentleman, as to 

THE PUBLISHER. 



* / 



